Absolute Power
by haloford
Summary: The Harcesis, named Shifu, has been found on Abydos and taken to Earth by SG-1, where they ask him how to defeat the Goa'uld once and for all. However, Shifu instead shows Dr. Daniel Jackson a vision of what would happen if he gives him the power to defeat the Goa'uld. This is a novelization of the Season 4 episode 'ABSOLUTE POWER.'
1. Chapter 01

PROLOGUE

From the outside watching them, the two beings were little more than glows of light, soft tendrils snaking through the air around them, painfully bright to see and impossible to comprehend. However, the two beings appeared to each other in what had been their corporeal forms.

Their footsteps left no trail behind them in the sand. They cast no shadow. Their forms were as light as air and as brilliant as the sun. The taller of the two smiled down at the being she had taken to as a son. Or perhaps as a grandson. He looked up at her with a neutral expression, though his eyes were filled with emotion.

"Are you certain?" he asked softly even though he knew the answer was not necessary. She was Oma. She knew and understood things long past his comprehension. She'd had thousands of years to perfect her insights, after all, and he was a mere infant, toddling his way through it all.

Her hand reached out and she brushed the back of her knuckles across his cheek briefly. "It is time, Shifu. I can only keep your disappearance hidden for so long. The Others will notice if you are gone too long and you may not be able to rejoin us. You know what to do if that happens."

He nodded.

He was Harsesis. If he did not return, the dark bits of knowledge scraping at the barrier around his brain would leak through and he would be a danger to those he watched over. Worse, he would be hunted down for fates worse than bearing witness to the torture and death of innocents. No, not returning was not an option. However, not going at all was equally unattainable. He would need to make peace with his past before he could concentrate on his future.

He turned, casting a last glance over his shoulder back toward the closest thing he had to family. Was he betraying her by seeking knowledge of his actual family? The family of his flesh and blood body that he no longer required or inhabited? No, he could tell she understood. A faint smile wafted across his lips as he faced away from her and began to walk, his mother's name on his lips as he sought out any who were so close to her that they would pick up on the name being held in the winds and sand.

As time meant nothing, he had no way of telling how long he had been walking when a figure finally stopped, his old grizzled head turning and lifting in an attempt to catch the wind's offering. _Sha're._ Yes. This man knew her. Knew her well. Shifu felt he should be more familiar, but already his memories of being with The Others were beginning to fuzz and fray. It was a safeguard. It was irritating. But he somehow knew the word grandfather and that it was applicable to this figure. The father of his mother. There. He caught the tendril of thought and held onto it, wringing out the memory from it like braille against fingertips. _Sha're._

The old man seemed spooked and began to call out, asking who was there. It was a cruel joke, he scolded the wind, voice dripping with grief. There was no Sha're. Not anymore. Not for some time. The others near him paused and cocked their heads to listen, some going pale as they heard the disembodied voice as well. They all turned to the old man for an explanation. After all, he had been their leader for some time. They were used to him having the answers. But this time, he did not.

He scurried away across the sand and Shifu remained there, not wanting to veer too far from the spot. The old man was someone who could give him knowledge, but he felt that he was not the one he had been seeking.

He settled in to wait.


	2. Chapter 02

Ever since they stepped out of the gate onto Abydos, Dr. Daniel Jackson had been uneasy. Once he would have been excited to return to his home, his family and friends, but that was no longer the case. It was no longer home. His ties to what had been his family were tenuous at best, severed by the death of the thread that held him to them. His friends? He realized that the friendships he had made on the desert planet were little more than acquaintances after all. At the time he had no real depth of relationships to compare them to. They felt like friendships. Now he knew better.

There was no question that he was a different man than the first time he stepped through the Stargate onto this planet. His first time through, he awkwardly wore military BDUs that didn't quite fit. His hair was an untamed mop. His glasses were heavy with his prescription and made of untempered plastic. His body was thin in the way of underfed survivors of graduate programs everywhere and he saw little past his own nose, both literally and figuratively. Now each footfall was heavy with purpose. His shoulders had broadened, bulking up just enough to carry the burdens he'd accumulated over the past few years. His glasses were made of a thin metal, able to bend without breaking and given the military's nod for use. Just like me, came an unbidden thought. His BDUs were well worn and tailored to his form. His hair was just too long in the front to be proper military, but made a decent enough attempt to pass at a glance. Yes, much like him.

The Daniel Jackson from over five years ago was not the same man who now walked the same path through the village he'd walked countless times before.

He walked along, bringing up the rear. There was no worry here of attack and the team was in a loose formation. Daniel kept his distance from his father-in-law, Kasuf. Was he still considered his father-in-law? He still referred to Daniel as Good Son and Daniel called him Good Father. But the words were hollow now. The light that had filled the titles dimmed and sputtered out with the death of Sha're. Daniel didn't want to be here and so he slowed his long legs to keep pace behind everyone else, but moved just enough to keep from ever veering too close to stillness. If he stopped moving, the past few years would catch up to him and drown him with his own psyche. It was almost like Jack's constant need for motion was rubbing off on him.

Ahead of him, he saw the sun-faded headdress and robes of Kasuf, catching his face in frequent profile as he turned to speak to Jack. Jack's back was military-straight as if he marched at attention. His fingers rested on the side of his standard issue P90. Despite the lack of threat on Abydos, he was always ready for something to go wrong and it showed in his posture and the easy swivel of his neck to take in every last detail. Teal'c, ahead and to the right of Daniel, walked with a much easier gait. The large Jaffa's jacket was unzipped against the heat and would slightly billow at each movement if it wasn't weighed down by his unfastened vest and packs. Sam also carried a P90, required by all off-world teams even going to somewhere as friendly as Abydos. Though she was on the taller side for a woman, she still had to take more frequent steps to cover the ground and keep up with the men surrounding her. She was used to it, though. Kasuf might not be much taller than her, but he walked quickly and with purpose. The pace kept her blood pumping and kept her distracted from the possible ramifications of why they were there.

Kasuf had contacted them the previous night, or perhaps early morning would be a better description of the time. It was only happenstance that the entirety of SG-1 was still on base when the message came through. As Kasuf explained through the open wormhole that he heard his daughter's name whispered on the wind and requested SG-1 to come investigate, Sam had glanced over at Daniel. He showed no expression. His face remained impassive and stony. Aside from the slightest twitch that tightened the skin at the corner of his eyes, he was eerily still at the news. When the General ordered them to get some rest and prepare to leave in several hours once he could write up the mission specs and requisition the gear, Daniel simply turned and walked out.

He'd been strangely quiet since then. Even Sam's attempts to draw him into conversation fell flat as they geared up and entered the Stargate and were spit out on Abydos.

"Yeah, Kasuf," Jack ventured after they had walked for some time. "About this voice that spoke to you?"

Kasuf's hands waved at his sides as he walked, helping keep the momentum going as they neared their destination. "Yes, it spoke the name of my daughter, may she rest in peace." His heart clenched at the mention of his daughter, as it always did even then. "I'm not the only one who heard it. Many fear it is a sign that the gods are returning."

Jack wrinkled his nose at that thought. "I thought we'd finally convinced you and your people that the Goa'uld were not gods." He didn't need to turn to sense that Teal'c would have an impassive expression on his face to hide the sneer he felt inside.

"I said many. Not I." Kasuf fought back a sigh. These Tau'ri had been born into a life that offered freedom rather than slavery. They would never quite understand no matter how sympathetic they were. Shackles of being enslaved spiritually as well as physically and mentally were not so easily cast aside by those who could still feel them encircle them. "In the days of Ra, when he returned from a journey, a great storm would blow through the desert," he explained, arms lifting slightly for emphasis. Surely they understood the symbolism.

Or perhaps not. "It's just wind," was Jack's soft response. "Wind happens."

On the other hand, Sam understood Kasuf's meaning. "We're talking about a wind that blew out of an active Stargate."

"And formed a sandstorm." Daniel finally felt the urge to contribute verbally. Sam glanced over to him, unable to keep a twitch of a smile from showing on her face. He was quiet. He wasn't disengaged entirely.

Kasuf wasn't done trying to convince Jack of the importance, though. "You forget it said the name Sha're."

Daniel's heart thudded at hearing her name spoken in the Abydonian accent.

Jack's did not. "Ah well, it's not like it's a burning bush or anything," he retorted.

"I have seen many bushes burn."

Of course he has, Jack thought. He knew it wasn't intentional, but Kasuf's quest for them was starting to irritate him greatly. If Daniel hadn't been on base when the call came through, Jack would have found a way to go on this mission without him. He didn't need the constant reminder of what he'd lost. "S'pose you have."

Kasuf wasn't sure what to make of Jack's words, so he concentrated instead on leading the way. "It's not far now," he indicated with a motion of his hand, uneasily going quiet as they continued on their way for some time. The wind coursed along the sand in waves. If it had blown any harder, talking would have been impossible without the potential to get a mouth full of sand. He finally came to a pause next to a dune in a valley dotted with sandy cliffs. "Here."

Daniel looked around, a hand raised to the brim of his hat. All he could see was unblemished sand stretched out in front of him in rippling waves. "There's nothing here." He tried not to feel disappointed. Was he secretly hoping somewhere deep inside that some miracle would bring Sha're back to him in the middle of a stretch of desert on the planet where they had lived together? He bit back the bitterness that crept into the back of his throat at the thought.

Jack was, as usual, more sarcastic. "A nice light breeze," he offered flippantly.

Kasuf would not be dissuaded by Jack's words. "This is where I heard the voice," he insisted, words as sharp edged as the sand that was being picked up by the growing wind. Jack tugged his desert sunglasses down, nearly goggles to keep out the blowing sand. Sam already had hers on before they began the trek through the sand so she had no reason to tear her eyes from her gadget in her hand.

"I'm getting a build up of static electricity, sir," she reported in a voice that sounded as ominous as it was gleeful.

The tendrils of glee that reached out toward Daniel turned to ice that saturated his veins as he heard his name on the wind. He did a double take across the space in front of him, but it was just as desolate as the rest of the area. The sand blowing in the wind met no resistance, indicating no cloaked people or vehicles.

Daniel. Daniel, the wind breathed. Surely he was hearing things.

"Anybody else just hear that?" Daniel asked, hoping for an answer he knew he wasn't going to get.

Sam peered across the sand as well, seeking some source other than insanity. "I think so." She didn't have to wait for long for evidence that was visual as well as audible. Sand began to swirl, drawn from the particles in the air rather than from below as what would happen with the development of a sudden sand whorl. It's almost as if the grit and dirt and sandy particles were manifesting out of thin air.

Squinting against the accompanying wind, Kasuf pointed. "There. Look!"

The entire team stared in wonder as the sand began to spin and whirl, now picking up the topmost layer of dust along with it. Though the wind spun and kicked at them as well, it was not nearly as powerful as what must be causing the funnel so close to them. "Now that's impressive!" Jack called into the wind.

Daniel. There it was again. This time there was no mistaking it. Even with the buffeting winds blasting harder every moment, the voice called to him. He stepped forward as Jack and Sam, military to the core, pulled Kasuf and Teal'c back. Teal'c took one step and froze, unwilling to leave Daniel alone. He shook off Jack's loose grasp to his arm. Kasuf nearly cowered behind Sam, overwhelmed by the mixed emotions such an event brought on. He had just gotten used to the idea of false gods and here he was faced with what could be a real one. It was not fear that made him cower but survival instinct. If the being itself were not a threat, the sharp building winds pelting them with sharp shards of sand were, and were a threat he knew all too well from a lifetime in the desert.

"DANIEL!?" This time the voice was not ethereal. It was loud and borderline angry and coming from Jack as he shouted into the wind. "Try to keep it in Kansas, huh?" Jack-speak for stay out of the tornado.

Glancing over his shoulder, Daniel waved his hand a little in an effort to bolster his inability to communicate vocally. "I was just trying to-" He couldn't even finish the thought let alone the words. What was he trying to do? He turned back to the column of sand that swirled up to the sky and straightened up, putting on his first contact persona. "I'm Daniel!" he called to the wind. "Who's calling?"

His words collapsed the column into itself and it began to break apart, the edges swirling free until with a whoosh and a roar of air, the sand broke off to show a small figure, a thin one wearing robes that were untouched by the wind around him. Him? Yes. The sand dispersed enough for Daniel to see that the figure was male, slight and young. Not even yet a teenager. A boy. A mere child.

The entirety of those gathered stared in wonder. Kasuf froze, awash at the thought that a god had returned. Sam's mind whirled at the thought of how a humanoid of some type could withstand the large levels of static electricity that had crept up and then suddenly bottomed out. Jack started to take a step forward, then paused, lips parting but no words coming out. Teal'c remained impassive, every muscle ready to react at a moment's notice. Daniel just stood with one hand holding his hat onto his head despite the sudden lack of wind trying to yank it off.

The figure came closer, wearing clothes that did not belong on Abydos, nor on Earth. The closest Daniel could remember seeing wearing such a thing was a monk on Kheb.

"I am Shifu," the child said. "I am Harcesis."

Suddenly the underlying feeling that Daniel had that he should recognize this figure made sense. Kasuf realized the same thing. The child's features, the tilt of his head, the rounding of his shoulders, it was all Sha're. This was Sha're's child. This was the baby Daniel had so recently given up to Oma Desala.

Shifu. Light, Daniel's mind translated. A fitting name, considering.

They all stared at him as understanding sunk in.

They had found Sha're's son.


	3. Chapter 03

Daniel gave a slight nod as he stood up. His questions were done. His mind was full of questions and answers waiting for his brain to match them up. He pushed them aside. Things had to be done. Plans had to be made.

He pushed his glasses up further onto his nose and stepped out of the tent into the Abydonian sunlight.

"Well, I think that he is the Harcesis." The rest of his team looked up at him from their spot at the table nearby.

Sam's head tilted slightly. "How is that possible?"

Daniel rubbed a hand over his head. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "He says he grew like the weeds." Clearly. He appeared to be several years older than he should.

"Apophis sired the child to be his next host," Teal'c reminded them all. "It is possible that he used Goa'uld technology to manipulate the boy's body to mature quickly."

The thought had passed through all their minds in some form or another. "We know that's possible," Daniel agreed. His jaw clenched at the reminder of Apophis violating Sha're's body simply because Amaunet decided to claim it for her own. Did the snakes find any real pleasure in it? Did Amaunet? Did Sha're?

"Does he speak of the knowledge passed onto him by Amaunet and Apophis?" Teal'c asked.

Daniel glanced down, knowing this was going to be a hard statement to swallow. "He says Oma taught him to forget."

Jack perked up. "Oma?"

"The alien we encountered on Kheb," Daniel reminded him. "Mother Nature."

Jack pointed a finger in acknowledgement as Sam chimed in. "Guess that explains the tornado." Bingo. Leave it to his second to explain an awe-inducing event of nature that he felt as much in his bones as on his skin in one word. Tornado.

Daniel inwardly winced a little, uncertain how verbalizing the next part would make him feel. "Shifu says he came to Abydos to learn more about his mother." There. He avoided Sha're's name. It hurt less.

"She-foo?" Jack echoed with a questioning tone.

"Uh, his name," Daniel provided as if having expected the question all along. "It means light."

Almost on cue, Jack gave a slight roll of his eyes at the whole thing. Gone were the days when normal consisted of remembering to take out the trash and to order no onions on the burger at Sol's Diner or you'd have heartburn for a month. These days normal was his best friend's alien stepson growing up literally overnight and being named after a burst of glowy energy.

Sam quietly argued that they should take him back to the SGC, to Janet Fraiser. "If he's been altered to grow quickly, it could still be happening," she pointed out. Her mind whirled with acceleration growth rates, figuring out an approximate timeline if his aging process remained the same. It wasn't pretty.

Her CO didn't like the idea, but he couldn't put his finger on a firm argument against it. "Do you think it's wise to bring him back?"

"I don't think he's a danger," Daniel admitted, silently wondering if he thought that because he honestly believed the boy posed no danger or if he simply wanted to keep Sha're's son, his last link to her, with him.

Jack's voice was a low growl, taking on the tone it did when he didn't want to have a discussion he was being forced to have. "What about his stepmom Oma? Is she coming along?"

Daniel gave a slight shake of his head. "He says that ultimately a man travels his chosen path alone."

Jack smiled.

"Smart kid."

The smile ghosted away as quickly as it had been put in place.

"Get a message to Hammond. Let him know who we're bringing."

Sam nodded at the order. Jack tried not to feel relief that he wasn't the one who had to explain the whole thing to his superior.


	4. Chapter 04

The Gate room at the SGC was always an ambient temperature that was agreeable to most people. However, there always seemed to be a faint chill in the air. It might be the mountain surrounding them, it might be the rock evident in the concrete walls, it might be the blast of cold everyone associates with travel through the wormholes or it might just be the ever present crackle of activity even when the Stargate remained dormant.

Sometimes General George Hammond, a Texan boy through and through, wondered why he kept wearing short sleeves.

Then he'd go back up to his office with the lack of air circulation and he'd remember.

For now, though, he ignored the chill as he watched the gate spin into action and the iris disengage. Despite the call of SG-1's IDC coming through, the gate room filled with security officers armed to the teeth and decked out in layers of protective gear. Hammond ignored them just as well and stared at the event horizon of the wormhole in anticipation.

First through was Major Carter. Her face was drawn as if she were deep in thought. When Teal'c was spit out from the wormhole after her, he still had that easy relaxed walk and posture that Hammond knew was deceptive. Teal'c was ever on edge. Colonel Jack O'Neill came through quickly, having the tendency to enter the event horizon at a near-jog. Habitually he glanced back to make sure Doctor Jackson was with them, looking away the moment Daniel began to appear. Next to Doctor Jackson was a young boy, about shoulder-high to the archeologist and clad in clothing of deep orange, red and gold tones, his clothing knotted at the waist with a strip of cloth. Not exactly what Hammond had expected, but he learned long ago to expect only the unexpected.

Daniel led the boy forward along the ramp with a hand lightly placed against his back. The child peered around as if taking in every detail. As the wormhole disengaged, Daniel's hand rose to the boy's shoulder in a silent gesture of comfort, then dropped away. General Hammond could be intimidating, after all.

"Shifu, this is General Hammond. He's the leader of this facility."

Hammond's eyes drifted from Daniel down to Shifu who stood just high enough on the ramp to be at eye-level. "Welcome to Earth." Earth? Was that right? Is that what Shifu would have known to call the planet of the Tau'ri?

"A spark lights a flame," Shifu responded with a smile, "but the candle will only burn as long as the wick."

Daniel looked up and realized Hammond was looking at him for translation. Finding none, the General turned to look at the Colonel next to him who offered a shrug. Daniel stared at him as well. Jack cleared his throat. "If I may, sir, I think what he means is the wick is the center of the candle and ostensibly a great leader like yourself is essential to the whole ball of wax." Hammond could tell by the way Jack waved his hands around while talking that he actually had no idea of what the boy meant. "Basically what it means is that it's always better to have a big long wick." He paused and glanced upward toward the boy. "Right?"

Daniel sensed Jack's eyes veer from the boy to him so gave a shrug. "Don't look at me." Sensing that Shifu was not going to elaborate, Daniel motioned him to the side and gave him the slightest of pushes to continue down the ramp.

As they passed, Jack asked, "It's right though, right?"

General Hammond watched after them, hoping he knew what he was doing by authorizing the boy to be brought back. If the IOA caught wind of it, the child would be locked up as a lab rat and Doctor Jackson would likely never forgive him.


	5. Chapter 05

Janet Fraiser was not a pediatrician, but she had some slight experience with children. In her experience, it was best to simply explain what you were doing in a calm voice and it would usually set them at ease even if they didn't understand what you were saying.

She thought of this as she snapped on her gloves and picked up her tools. "Okay." She would treat the boy as any other child. She pushed aside the thought that he was one of the glowy alien beings and the child of her friend's wife and a power-hungry alien bent on destroying them all. "Now I'm going to take a little bit of your blood with that needle," she continued, watching him to see if he showed any signs of being afraid of needles.

He did not. "Will you return it to me when you are done?" he asked, mind whirling to absorb the unfamiliar process.

Janet tried not to smile. "I, uh, I'm afraid I can't." Her expression remained steady, as if this was a perfectly normal question she received on a daily basis. "You see, I have to do some tests on it and then it just won't be very good after that."

Shifu glanced down, going from studying her to studying her words instead. She would be taking out a part of him that might be considered vital, but he would not be able to take it back when she was done. It made sense. He understood. "Leaves fall from the tree once a year, but the tree still grows strong and proud," he explained to her.

Her eyes glanced up toward Daniel for clarification, as if his linguist skills included alien riddles. "Go ahead," he said with a nod, glad that for once the riddle was fairly easy to understand.

She let out a soft agreeable sound and bent to the task at hand.

It didn't take overly long to run the tests, but she still had time to check on the few patients she had lingering in the infirmary and get something to eat. SG-1 had time to shower and change and eat as well, but she had missed them when she went to get her own food and ate alone. Secretly she was pleased. She wasn't sure how she felt about the child's presence on base. She couldn't even begin to imagine how Daniel felt and it would weigh heavily between them, feeling awkward. No, better this time she retreated to her professional distance.

Soon she found herself armed with stats and numbers as she headed to the briefing room just as an offworld activation was announced. Though she was facing away from it, she could still see the way the wormhole lit up the place, dancing faintly along the walls with a shimmer of light even with the iris closed. General Hammond had risen from his seat to watch the display. The iris not opening and the lack of alarm meant it was likely a message coming through. He considered going into the control room for a moment, but Major Carter was there and had full authority to handle messages. At least that was one less worry on his mind.

He turned back to the table and moved toward his seat. "Doctor?" he prompted. She was sitting up straight, all business, her papers spread out in front of her. Next to her Jack slumped forward, arms crossed on the table and his head ducked forward like he wanted to rest his head in his arms but didn't dare. Even he wasn't that lax. Daniel and Teal'c were in the same position, both sitting there with their hands folded in front of them on the table. However, Daniel had the look of someone who wasn't entirely there at all, his mind elsewhere, and Teal'c looked as if he had likely sat through this same briefing before. Nothing would phase him or surprise him.

Janet watched Hammond settle into his seat. At least she had what she was sure would be some good news. "Sir, I found traces of the same nanocyte technology that once prematurely aged Colonel O'Neill," she began. Jack slunk forward more and she caught his eye. He sat up straight, eyes boring into her. "Now I've had them analysed by some of the foremost experts in the field and they say that they appear to be inactive."

Everyone let out a slight collective sigh of relief at that. "So they shut themselves off already?" Jack asked as if making sure he heard what he thought he did.

"Well, it's possible the boy has already reached the pre-programmed age," she continued with a nod.

"Or," Daniel brought up, "Oma figured out a way to stop it."

Hammond didn't really care who was responsible, he just felt a slight knot of tension release in his stomach at the thought that they weren't going to run out of time to help the boy. "Either way, we can assume he's in no immediate physical danger?" Janet nodded and murmured an affirmative and the knot unraveled just a little more. "What about the information this boy apparently knows? What exactly can he tell us?"

Teal'c was all too happy to chime in. Next to him, Daniel had been quiet the whole time and didn't look very interested in speaking up further than he already had. He would answer for him. It is the least he could do, considering what he owed Daniel Jackson and Sha're. "He is born with the genetic memory of all Goa'uld who came before him."

Jack's brain tried to wrap itself around this. He understood the snakes being born with genetic memories, but this was a human child born of the hosts. Wouldn't it, shouldn't it, have the memories of the hosts if anything? "So the kid should know everything Apophis knew when he…" his words trailed off, as did the lewd gesture he was about to make. Janet half glared at him for bringing it up.

Across the table, Daniel closed his eyes and breathed in, working to loosen his jaw that suddenly tensed up. He fought back the urge to slug Jack in the face, but instead of feeling the burn of rage he felt strangely empty of emotion. "Fathered the boy," he finished, finally glancing across to Jack who pointed at him. "That," Jack agreed quietly, pushing back the sudden visual of Daniel's wife and Apophis wrapped around each other in the height of passion. He shuddered anyway.

General Hammond cut the tension by bringing up Shifu himself rather than his parentage. "That must be an awfully big burden for a young child to carry."

Teal'c didn't look up from the spot on the table he'd taken to studying. "That is why all Goa'uld are born evil," he agreed, flickers of memories darting through his mind.

"It also explains why a benevolent being like Oma Desala would help the boy to bury those memories in his subconscious," Daniel interjected. For the past hour, he'd considered this next part and was careful in how he broached it. "So he could lead a relatively normal life."

He hesitated a moment, trying to figure out how to best continue. Jack glanced his way, but Daniel never lifted his eyes from the table. He knew. He could tell what was brewing in Daniel's mind. He wanted the kid. He wanted the son he missed out on, first by losing Sha're to the Goa'uld, followed by her death, then to having to give up her child to be raised as an Ascended being. Daniel was as stubborn as he was smart. He'd never just give up the boy. He'd fight epic passionate battles to keep the IOA's hands off him.

They heard her approach before Sam came through the doorway. "Sir, we've received word from the Tok'ra."

Jack groaned softly. "Oh did we really have to call them?" The Tok'ra had played the need-to-know card more than their fair share of times and Jack was itching for a reason to throw it back into their faces. This had seemed like the perfect reason to use it.

Hammond shook his head. "We have a treaty with them, Colonel. Specifically mentioned is the full exchange of all sources of potential information pertaining to the Goa'uld." He leveled a look at Jack who cut off any further protest he was about to make.

Sam continued, "They say they can use the memory recall device to extract information from Shifu without harming him physically."

Janet looked up. "What about mentally?" she asked.

Daniel blurted out, "Uh, what about emotionally?" Did they all forget what they were dealing with? This was his son! He shook off that train of thought. Shifu wasn't his son. It was too complicated to allow himself to think of the boy as family when he wasn't even sure what would become of him. But he'd be damned if he'd go down without fighting on his behalf. "I mean think about what we'd be exposing him to. We'd be flooding his mind with the thoughts of a thousand Hitlers, one of whom happened to put a snake in the head of his mother." He swallowed back another sharp taste of bile in the back of this throat. He had to keep it separate. The boy was a separate issue than the boy's conception and it was an issue that Daniel alone had to come to terms with. It wasn't problematic for anyone else. "Look I realise we're talking about protecting Earth and eliminating the Goa'uld entirely, but…uh," he stammered.

Hammond cut off Daniel's stuttering words. "It seems to me the boy is fairly wise well beyond his years. In fact, isn't it possible he might comprehend the situation if you explained it to him?"

He considered that for a moment as he looked back at the General. "Well I guess so, but I doubt he'd be willing to remember. And even if he is, how can we ask him to?"

It would be torture. They all knew it and didn't vocalize it. The needs of the many and all that. Suddenly Jack was glad he didn't wear the big hat and was able to stay hands off for the solution to this problem.

Meanwhile, Sam's mind whirled with measurements. She actually was weighting the needs of the many against the needs of one small boy and the husband of the boy's dead mother. She knew that no matter how much she shoved down on that side of the scale to tip it in their favor, the needs of the many would always win out. The only solution would be a compromise. "Well, if he forgot once," she ventured hopefully, "Maybe he could forget again?"

And as much as Daniel tried to fight the thought, he knew she had a point. It was time to talk to Shifu.


	6. Chapter 06

The sleeping quarters of the SGC were bare. Sure, they had some VIP rooms with plush surroundings that made the regular rooms even more stark and empty in comparison, but Shifu was not put in one of those. He was just a small boy with few needs.

Daniel headed into the fairly dark room. The overhead lighting was clicked off and the only illumination came from a candle on the side table that Daniel recognized as being the same ones Teal'c used. Shifu sat with his legs crossed staring into the candle's flame, ignoring the flicker caused by Daniel's arrival.

"Am I interrupting?" he asked quietly as he came around to Shifu's front. The boy opened his eyes. Daniel braced slightly for some cryptic message, but he was instead greeting with a simple, "No."

He looked around and grabbed a chair, tugging it over so he could sit next to the bed where Shifu had taken up his meditative posture. "So uhm, I know you have a lot of questions. And I'm sorry for leaving you here, but we had things to discuss that you couldn't be part of because you are not part of our government. Does that make sense?"

"You cannot trust the hungry animal to bite only the food," Shifu replied wistfully.

"Uh, yeah," Daniel mumbled. He thought he understood. He hoped he did. Sometimes the meaning of these Oma-isms was easier to understand than others. When Daniel wasn't sure of the exact meaning of the words, he paid attention to the sound and body language of the speaker. It's how he was often able to make progress when he didn't understand the language yet. "So, we need to ask you for help. We've been fighting against the Goa'uld for some time. They leave a path of destruction in their wake. They enslave countless nations and even entire planets without a thought. They take hosts without consideration to what it does to them. You say you have the memories within you. You must know what I'm talking about."

Shifu slowly shook his head. "I am unaware of the specifics of these memories which I hold. However, I sense the sincerity of your words. I know you feel great anger but are unwilling to act on it. You are a good man."

Daniel leaned forward and rested his elbow on his thigh, hand held to his forehead to hold up his head while he collected himself. "No," he whispered, sitting up again. "I uh, I mean I am not angry and unwilling to act on it. I am angry and unable to act in an appropriate, constructive manner. To do battle with the Goa'uld, to go up against them right now, would be madness. Suicide, even. We don't have the technology."

"And you think I do," Shifu supplied. "You believe I hold the knowledge to their downfall and wish to extract it from me in order to defend yourself."

"That is what my government believes."

Shifu considered the words, studying Daniel's face intently. "You believe otherwise."

Daniel slowly nodded. "I do. I believe there are forces I do not understand. Things I can only accept. I have no choice to accept what my government decides, but I will do my best to influence that decision."

There it was. That tiny spark of pride underneath the uncountable layers of humility and selflessness. That spark was all it took, though. Shifu looked away before he started to envision Daniel engulfed in flames.

"Tell me of my mother."

Even though Daniel would have given almost anything for another subject to broach, this was not the one he would have chosen. Still, Shifu had every right to ask and he was the best option. Kasuf refused to return with them through the Stargate which meant his choices were to ask Jack who had spent a total of perhaps three hours total with or Daniel who had lived with her as husband and wife for a year.

Despite the cold hand clutching his heart, Daniel managed a smile as he thought of her. There were times now that she was dead and laid to rest where he could think of her and feel something other than an overwhelming mixture of guilt, sadness and anger. A brief flash of her smile lurched his heart before it was enclosed in an icy grip again. "She was beautiful," he whispered as if unsure how or where to begin. So he decided to start at the beginning.

"I came through the Stargate to explore. We were trapped here, forced to fight Ra. We defeated him and I opened the Stargate again, but I stayed on Abydos with your mother. We were happy. She was smart. I taught her just as she taught me." Daniel's words didn't entirely provide the answers Shifu had wanted, but he did not interrupt. "When she was taken to be a host to Amaunet, I swore I would get her back. I tried. I spent every waking moment, and some not so awake ones, doing everything I could to make that a reality."

"Sometimes the reality is the perception and sometimes the perception is the reality," Shifu pointed out.

Daniel wasn't sure what it meant, but he understood how the words made him feel. Was Shifu forgiving him? Was he saying that no amount of willpower can change the facts? He shrugged it off and took it as an encouragement.

"I loved her. I still do," he admitted in a voice laced with regret and sadness. His fingers fidgeted in an inability to remain still. He felt like Jack, always having to move. If he stayed still, everything would wash over him and he'd be drowning in emotions. He'd spent so long internalizing his thoughts and feelings that he couldn't bring them into the forefront for anyone else to delve into. He didn't want to share them. They were his emotions for his wife and nobody, not even Shifu, had any right to them.

No, no, that was wrong. Shifu had every right to them. He had every right to ask everything about the mother he never knew. And the fact that he felt Sha're was his mother rather than Amaunet spoke volumes.

"I could list off her favorite colors, the things that made her laugh, how she was always picking up after me because I'd forget where I put something down and could never find it. But the important things you need to know are that she was a kind, caring person. She did everything she could to keep you safe while she carried you, and it broke her heart to know that she had no choice but to give you up and hide you when you were born."

"Tell me what she said," Shifu prodded gently.

"I wish I could," Daniel replied. "But she didn't exactly say them. She…" he paused, unsure of how to continue. "While Amaunet was using the hand device on me to try and kill me, Sha're was able to pass along a message. When I received it, I just… understood what she meant. It was as if she passed on emotions as well as words."

Shifu studied Daniel's face intently. "She spoke to you through the Goa'uld hand device?" he asked.

Daniel nodded. "Yes," he stated with a proud nod of his head. Shifu smiled, pleased at that. "She was strong," he said, also feeling a sense of pride in his mother, though it was tempered by the thought that she was Goa'uld.

For a flash, Daniel was back in the throes of the device, feeling it burn painfully into his head. Not only did it scorch the flesh but it drilled into his mind as well. It was a violation of not just his body but of his entire being. "In those moments as Amaunet tried to kill me, it felt like I lived a lifetime."

Even though Shifu had never been under the influence of the hand device, he had seen enough in his time as an Ascended to understand the working of it.

"Like a dream," he ventured, to which Daniel nodded and murmured an affirmative. It was a slight simplification of what happened, but it was close enough to be described as such. Shifu brightened for a moment. "Dreams teach," he pointed out.

"Sometimes." Daniel ignored the clutch of ice around his heart and it eased up slightly. It was taking less time to pull himself from the cold and dark each time he thought of his wife. He only wished it took as little time to shake off the dreams he was left to wallow in. Dreams where she poured every bit of her into that momentary connection and he was unable to reach back and pull her to safety. "In this one, I got the chance to say goodbye and your mother told me how important you were."

Dreams _can_ teach. Shifu's mind whirled with a thousand possibilities but one stood out more clear than the rest. It was a stark path through a jumble of warring ideas. "Oma teaches the true nature of a man is decided in the battle between his conscious mind and the desires of the subconscious." He watched Daniel take a breath and absorb his words. "Oma teaches that the evil my subconscious is too strong to resist and the only way to win is to deny it battle."

For a moment, Daniel wished it was within his power to deny this young boy a battle. Even if he wasn't the son of his wife, Shifu was still a child. A genetically-engineered child who had grown at approximately four times the natural rate and had spent time as an Ascended being of energy who had a complete sense of the workings of the universe, but still a child. Part of him wanted nothing more than to wrap him in his arms and comfort him and tell him it would be okay, even though he knew it would be a lie.

Daniel pushed himself up from his comfortable slouch to sit straighter in the seat. "Yeah," he murmured. "See, the thing is we can't deny the battle against the Goa'uld forever. The information contained within your buried memories could really help us."

If Shifu understood the concept of frowning, or of human emotions and expressions, he would have frowned. "You have chosen a path that leads to me because of this." It was a question as well as a statement. He asked it, but knew the answer before the question had been formed.

"Yes," Daniel nodded, momentarily unable to meet the boy's eyes. Finally he did glance up, his expression earnest.

Shifu wasn't entirely sure why, but he broke the eye contact. The line that had started to form through the jumble of options became sharper and clearer. "You must release your burden before you will find your own way again," he pointed out.

The words weighed on Daniel and he ducked his head for a moment. "Yeah, someone else once said that to me," he mentioned slowly. "The thing is, this is my way." He swallowed back the break he felt in his voice. Icy tendrils of grief threatened to close around his heart again. "I chose this path to honor Sha're's strength, and ultimately it isn't just about me. Or you for that matter."

"I understand."

Daniel glanced up, his expression hopeful despite the dread he felt creeping in. It would have been much easier if Shifu had denied him outright, had refused to go down this path and cut short any and all possibility of having to put him through the pain of remembering the locked-away memories held in his mind.

He licked his lips that suddenly felt as dry as his throat. "The Tok'ra have a way to help you remember only certain things." He studied Shifu's face for any sort of response, but found the boy's expression as serene as ever. "How the Goa'uld technology works. Their weaknesses. And then afterwards, maybe Oma can help you forget again."

"If the instrument is broken, the music will be sour," Shifu insisted. Daniel nodded slightly even though he wasn't quite sure what the intended meaning was. Was he saying that the memories would break him? Or was he simply implying that he didn't want Daniel to see him differently if he suddenly had the genetic memories implanted in him to surface and turn him evil?

Daniel thought a moment and retorted, "The uh, the music does not play the musician."

"Normally there is truth in that."

Daniel felt himself relax a little, the knots of tension in his shoulders releasing just slightly. "Really?" he asked with a hint of relief as Shifu nodded in response. "Good. Because I really didn't have any idea what I was talking about." He smiled. Shifu smiled back.

The smile faded and Daniel's faltered and faded as well as Shifu held up a hand, palm out toward him. Despite an urge to flinch back, Daniel forced himself to remain still as that hand came closer to him, fingertips brushing against the skin of his forehead.

A light flared, blinding him. Suddenly he felt an invasion of his mind, the touch firing sharp daggers into his brain that made him want to pull back, yank himself away from the touch.

For an eternity, the contact downloaded into his mind, forcing his brain to capacity with a flood of images and bits of knowledge that made no sense.

Meanwhile, his body stiffened and fell to the floor. Shifu sat there for a moment, smiling as he realized it had worked.


	7. Chapter 07

His nose tickled and burned with the smell of antiseptic. Before he could even force his eyes to open, he knew he was in the infirmary. Slowly his eyes opened and he was met with a glowing orb overhead that shifted into the form of a light. Beeps softly tapped a rhythm into his ears.

Everything was blurry as he shifted his head to look around, but he could make out just enough of a fuzzy picture to spot Janet next to him. She didn't even hesitate as she grabbed for the phone, her words confirming who was on the other end. "Colonel? He's awake," she said as Daniel's vision blinked into better focus.

His mind whirled what a jumble of thoughts and memories. A sense of loss. A glowing light. A void suddenly filled to overflowing. It was all feelings of something, the visuals hovering just out of reach. "What happened?" His voice didn't feel unused so he must not have been out for long.

"I was going to ask you the same thing," Janet responded. "You were talking to the boy and then you suddenly collapsed." A look of confusion passed across Daniel's features for a moment and he glanced away, breaking their eye contact.

A series of beeps seemed far louder, the sound piercing through his brain. Suddenly everything seemed to both close in and open up around him. He felt giddy and certain as an image formed in his mind. He saw it from a distance, fully formed, and knew exactly what it was and how it was made. The perfect weapon. A pyramid-shaped device in space. And suddenly the shape of the pyramid also made perfect sense. For years Daniel had been trying to figure out the root of the symbology the Goa'uld based their technology on and now it made perfect sense to his brain. But he couldn't formulate the words in English or even verbal Goa'uld. It was a sense of understanding that went through to his bones and would not be denied, however.

Colonel Jack O'Neill and the rest of SG-1 had an unspoken rule that the staff of the infirmary knew well and that was that if any member of the team is in the infirmary, the entire team is in the infirmary. Often they would take shifts unless the situation was dire, then there was no moving any of them. But of course the moment that Jack went to collect and sign off on the reports for General Hammond, his errant archeologist decided to awaken from his strange sleep.

Jack's voice seemed loud and sharp to Daniel's ears at first as it pulled him back to reality and out of the depths of his thoughts. "Hey! How ya feeling?"

Daniel stared at him. When had Jack's hair gone so silver at the temples? It's almost as if being lost in his internal depths made everything else outside of his brain a new experience again. "Fine," he responded automatically before pondering the nature of the word and finding it an accurate fit. "I'm fine."

Jack was used to that response and expected it. He'd leave the true fit of the word up to Frasier. He had more important things to find out. "Uh, listen," he drawled out as if not sure how to broach the subject. "What happened with the kid in there?"

"I asked him for something." Daniel's mouth felt dry as he ran his tongue over his lips thoughtfully. How to explain what it was he had asked for? Before his brain had cracked open and been filled with a stardust of random tidbits of knowledge, it had been such an easy thing to explain. Now there seemed to be no words to accurately describe what it was he had asked for and received. "Anything that could help us fight the Goa'uld."

"Yeah?"

Daniel's eyes appeared unfocused for a moment as he fought to sort and catalog the memories that flooded the back of his brain, the dark areas that held things waiting to be brought out and observed and analyzed, turned over and tagged and filed back away. "And I think he gave it to me."

Janet's gaze drifted from Daniel's face over to Jack's as she struggled to process this information. He fought to hold back a troubled expression as he returned her glance. Daniel's brain was already a complex place, filled with trap doors and anxieties and grief. There was no telling what this could do to his mindset this time. Nobody wanted Daniel to be the one to be forced to sort this knowledge through his synapses and grey matter.

 _What did we do to him this time?_ Jack wondered as he watched Daniel guiltily.

Within an hour Sam had an idea of what exactly it was that his brain was processing, but even she was having trouble keeping up with him. Daniel furiously covered a blackboard in sketches, his hand moving at a lightning speed as it tried to keep up with his mind. So far her understanding had been tenuous, but she had grasped enough of the design to follow along to the end before delving back in for specifics and details to fill in the gaps and answer her questions that had already started to brew.

Daniel tapped his index fingers against the circular sections of the drawing. "These are the long range sensors," he explained, the stuttering process of translation to English coming slightly easier as he become more used to processing the flow of information.

Sam looked down at her notes that she had taken so far. The pages were entirely too bare for her liking. "I don't even know what to ask first," she admitted softly.

Daniel felt a slight bristle at her words. Major Samantha Carter was the most apt scientist he knew. Surely human brains weren't so worthless that they can't think on this basic level- he cut himself off from that strange flash of thought and blinked a few times to steady himself in reality. "Well the translation may be a little off. Everything in my head is actually in Goa'uld."

Sam stared at him as he admitted that last part, her mind suddenly having a thousand questions about what was actually going on in his brain. She remembered a team night where, after a few beers, Daniel had said something in Arabic. She was sure that Jack must have understood since he started to smile before cutting off the expression, but Sam remembered she'd had just enough beer herself to ask Daniel if he actually _thought_ in English or another language. She knew he'd grown up in Egypt. Was that what he considered his first language? The realization that she had never really gotten an answer whispered in her mind. It would make sense why he found it so easy to think in Goa'uld and speak and write in English, though. But there was time for that later. For the moment, the diagram and what it represented was the highest priority.

"Where does it get its power from?" she asked, deciding to start with the basics. Fill in the outline and then go back and fill in the details, that was how she preferred to work.

She should have been prepared for the response, but it still struck her with shock when he responded. "Liquid naquada fuel cell here." His fingers tapped at the drawing and he missed her expression. "Liquid naquada?" she echoed, mind spinning with the statistics and ramifications of the substance. There was no way it could handle the draw of that much power. Not on the scale he was talking about.

He kept his eyes on an equation in the corner, knowing it was important but not having made the connection just yet. He just _knew_ it was right and it was key. "Well actually, it's heavy liquid naquada. But don't ask me what makes it heavy." He almost shrugged as if this was becoming normal, the knowing things but not understanding them yet. The blocks were still working themselves into order in his brain. "At least not yet."

The equation burned itself into his brain.

Why was it important. How was it important. Why it made sense that it made no sense. He could envision a three dimensional model of the finished product and watched the layers being peeled back until a tiny red dot in the depths could be seen. That was where the equation belonged. It wasn't in the power catalog. No, it was guidance. No, stabilizer. It was to balance the stabilizer against spacial drift, allowing a more accurate determination of not just where the target was, but where it would precisely be at the moment of impact.

But when he looked at it again, it was still just a series of symbols, numeric and mathematic. And wasn't it all symbols? All language. Their entire bodies were made up of symbols used to describe the atomic- Oh wait. Suddenly he understood the relationship between Goa'uld technology and the presence of naquada in the system. More than that, he understood the chemical makeup of naquada in ways he never did before. Even the healing device, the sarcophagus and the ribbon device all made sense. The focused energy. The way it could render or repair tissue. He could see it clearly in his mind but it frustrated him that he would never be able to use the technology without the presence of naquada in his bloodstream. He could do so much good. Save the world, then travel across the country healing people. If only-

"Daniel, this-" Sam's words cut off as she saw his face. She couldn't tell if the set of his jaw, bringing out that slight indentation in his cheeks, was from pain or not. He lifted his head, pulled back again as he cleared his mind. "You okay?"

He forced himself to nod slightly. "Yeah. It's just that strange things keep flooding into my mind." He pushed the wave of thoughts back. They were coming too fast and too deep to filter properly. It wouldn't be long before he would need to stop focusing on output and just work to control the input.

He realized Sam was still staring. He could feel her eyes on him without having to turn to see.

"I'm sorry. What were you saying?"

"Just that this is unbelievable." The term was almost a complete let-down to Sam's ears even as she said it. She was staring at leaps and bounds to technological advancement even further along than any backwards engineering had allowed them so far. She was getting data from the actual source. Daniel was starting to grasp an understanding of things that had plagued her for months, for years even, and he was the key to opening up decades of advancement in weeks.

Unbelievable. Such an underwhelming word.

Daniel was barely listening, but he felt an agreement with that assertion. "I know."


	8. Chapter 08

After a while, it became too time consuming for Daniel to bother translating his plans from the Goa'uld language into English. What did it matter? He was the only one who cold make sense of them anyway at this stage. They could be translated later.

So when Daniel slid the blueprints in front of General Hammond, the General was even more confused than ever. At least with regular blueprints he could grasp enough to follow along when faced with a briefing involving engineering. This was so completely beyond him though that he almost felt his eyes cross just looking at it. "What is it?"

That was a good question. Sam dug around for an appropriate word. "I guess you could call it a satellite, sir." While the word satellite typically brought up passive programming, it was still accurate enough for use. "According to Daniel it would be capable of detecting approaching Goa'uld ships thousands of light years away." The next part spiked her adrenaline and made the countless past hours of intense brain function and exhaustion worth it though when she fought back a smile. "Its weapons systems could penetrate Goa'uld shield technology and destroy mother ships. Basically sir, it's the basis of the perfect anti-Goa'uld defense system."

"Of course we'd need to build an entire network of them and launch them into orbit," Daniel provided. He didn't miss the way Hammond's eyes darted directly to him, already mentally calculating the possibilities.

"Can we do that?" While astrophysics and engineering were not his forte, he knew the budgetary restraints that they'd buck up against before such a project would even get off the ground. The sense of concern about presenting such a project to the committee responsible for their budget grew as Sam continued.

"Well sir, this is an entirely new kind of technology. We'd need to bring in outside help." She almost bit her tongue as she added, "A lot of it." It was difficult for her to admit that she and her staff weren't nearly enough to take on such a project, even if she knew it was ridiculous to feel that way. "Engineers, physicists…"

Daniel cut her off."But ultimately it means we don't have to involve the Tok'ra." He blurted out the words before realizing he had no lead-in to why he felt that way.

Not involve the Tok'ra? General Hammond was confused. They were allies. Why would they possibly cut the Tok'ra off from this? They could likely provide input, having the same sort of genetic memories and a lot more experience with the Goa'uld technology. "Why not?"

He tried not to feel frustrated as he backtracked. At times like this, Daniel was reminded that not everyone had the same sort of brilliance he did. Usually it didn't bother him. He'd been reigning in his thoughts for the sake of others since the first night he'd been taken in by child protective services. It was a lesson learned well and early. It only mildly irritated him now that he had to take the time to do so when there was so much at stake.

"At the moment, the Goa'uld don't care what we're up to," he explained, glancing from the General to Sam. "We're no immediate threat. But if it gets out that we've advanced to this level of technology, we wouldn't be able to build this defense system fast enough."

Hammond narrowed his eyes at the implication. "You think the Tok'ra would betray us?" he asked. Even Sam looked taken aback at the thought. After all, she had implicit trust in at least one Tok'ra operative.

Yes. They would in a heartbeat if it served their purpose, Daniel's brain spit out, causing him to shake his head to clear the thought. "Maybe not intentionally, but they've had problems with Goa'uld spies before," he pointed out. "I don't think it's worth the risk. Not when we can do it without them." It was entirely clear to him but a glance at General Hammond showed he wasn't entirely convinced.

"I'll take that into consideration." Gammond decided to let that bit of information simmer in the background until he could pull it out and study it more intently. On the surface, it made sense. It was accurate, even if they had no reason to suspect there were any spies in the ranks of the Tok'ra currently.

"What about the boy?" he continued.

Daniel bit back a sigh at the change of subject. Who cared about the boy when there was the matter of planet-wide security to discuss? Shifu was fine. "Well he doesn't have to remember anything now. He's given me all the knowledge we need," Daniel pointed out.

"How he did that is what concerns me."

One of the unforeseen responses to Daniel being flooded with so much pure knowledge is that along with memories often come emotional responses. Even if the Goa'uld he collectively remembered from the combined lines of Apophis and Amaunet didn't subscribe to the same sort of emotions that humans did, their memories were often colored by their human hosts. As Daniel's brain sifted through all of this in the background, he often had not just flashes of visual memories, but tactile sensations and emotions that would flare up and quickly disperse. It was distracting and left his own emotions too close to the surface for his liking. Daniel had become accustomed over his lifetime to keeping a firmly locked gate between him and his emotions, so it was a surprise to him when he felt washed with an overwhelming paternal sense of wanting to protect the boy.

"He's no danger, sir," he responded quietly.

"Still, as long as he's here he should be kept under close guard." Daniel's heart lurched tentatively at Hammond's words even though he knew the truth of the matter. It was protocol. They just didn't understand Shifu like he did. He was the boy's father, after all. Or should have been. It was growing hazy and confusing in his mind as he juggled the possessive memories of his actual father. Hammond glanced from Daniel over to Sam. "I'll talk to the Pentagon about bringing in some more personnel to help you out."

Even though Daniel knew the comment was directed toward them both, he felt a sudden urge to remind them both that he was the head of the project, not Major Samantha Carter. Then he shook that thought back. He was simply too easily riled up. He was exhausted. It wasn't like him to begrudge Sam any sort of stake in a project that she was vital in achieving. He'd make a point to show his appreciation for her help later.

They turned to leave and Daniel paused for a moment, glancing back at the General who was already picking up his phone. He took in the slump of his shoulders and the deeper than usual creases around his eyes. He did not envy the General his job or the weight of the responsibility that this posting gave him. He'd do all he could to ease his burden and help keep the planet safe. He owed George Hammond far more than that.

He turned and followed Sam out back to the lab.

Hours later he was still at it, filling every available surface with calculations and equations with occasional notes in English and Goa'uld.

There was one spot that he was stuck on. He pushed and pushed his brain to the point of exhaustion to get past it, but he couldn't. If it interacted on the level of simply a proton, the disbursement pattern would be uncontained by the generated field. But if the containment field was factored to hold all subatomic energy particles and this calculation was wrong, it could build energy that would far exceed an atomic bomb.

He pulled his glasses off, rubbing his free hand over his face. He finally understood the supersymmetry calculations he'd jotted down earlier but was no closer to proving or disproving the theory since he was focused so intently on the damn containment field equation. He had a new respect for Goa'uld logic. They may be maniacal and evil but they understood mathematics on a level that surpassed even Sam's understanding.

With a sigh, he picked up his notebook and looked at his potential equations again, comparing the pros and cons of each particle being captured in the field. He was close. So close. The answer was right there, hovering just in the outskirts of his vision. Was it generic? Was it specific to a type of particle? The range of an explosion caused by a miscalculation would be catastrophic.

Teal'c entered the room, studying his friend for a moment. Daniel's face was drawn and the intensity of his expression showed how hard he was concentrating. He showed signs of exhaustion but clearly ignored them, which was not unusual for his friend. He pushed away any sense of annoyance at having been interrupted and instead felt momentarily ashamed by it. The young Tau'ri had taken so much onto his shoulders time and again and still he delved into this project with all the intensity he could muster.

He could silently watch no longer. "Daniel Jackson."

Daniel glanced up and over before looking back at his notes. "Teal'c," he greeted in return, his voice distant.

"I was unable to complete my kel'no'reem. What is of such importance that I should be summoned here immediately?"

As Daniel rubbed a fingertip against his eye for a moment, he fought back a wave of weariness. Each time he stopped delving into the current aspect of the design of the device, currently the equations for the containment unit, he felt more and more exhausted. He knew he should rest but he felt the weight of the defense of the planet weighing on him more and more. He glanced over at the Jaffa and envisioned him going down to his knees, head bowed, armor gleaming, expression loyal and proud. Wait, no, his upward glance through his lashes showed his defiance. He was not to be trusted. How dare he wear the golden seal of First Prime?

 _Woah_.

Daniel pulled himself out of the memory. The flashes were getting stronger. That or he was growing more tired and unable to keep everything sorted and filed in his brain. When he asked for the knowledge of the technology, Shifu must have given him too much of the Goa'uld genetic memory.

 _Focus, Jackson. Focus._ It wasn't real. Teal'c was a Jaffa by biology, yes, but he was no longer First Prime. Not of Apophis, not of any other System Lord and certainly not of Doctor Daniel Jackson. It was just the memories that flooded him. Daniel had no desire to have a First Prime. All he wanted was a friend and teammate. Someone he could trust to have his back and in return he would have Teal'c's. Like always.

He realized that Teal'c was still waiting for a response. Why did he summon him? Oh.

His hand motioned to the troublesome spot on the blackboard and he misjudged, rapping his knuckles against it. "Uhm, what's this mean?" He stepped back quickly to take it all in at once.

Teal'c felt a hint of a frown showing at the edges of his mouth. He'd been trained for so many years to keep his face emotionless that it felt foreign every time an expression leaked out. But Daniel was distracted, jittery and moved as if he had a crackle of lightning running just under his skin. He needed more rest and less coffee and certainly a view of something other than the weapon he was formulating in his head.

"I believe the closest translation would be subatomic energy particles."

Daniel's eyes never left the chalkboard and he moved in closer, narrowing his field of view back to the section he had been working on. "That's what I thought." He added a quick, "Thank you," but Teal'c felt it was more a habit than a sincere response and his eyes remained on his friend's profile for a long moment. He was concerned about Daniel's mannerisms. He seemed too focused, even for him. Historically Daniel would get so caught up in a project that he would forget to eat or even sleep. If possible, he would likely not even waste his energy on breathing or blinking. But this single mindedness was different. It was more consuming than anything else and Teal'c felt a tug of sadness that he was forced to go through this ultimately alone.

Realizing that Teal'c was still there, Daniel dismissed him with an absent mumble of "That's it. You can go back to whatever you were doing."

Over the years, Teal'c had never felt as distanced from any member of his team, his hard-won family, than he did at that very moment. Straightening up, he turned and left.


	9. Chapter 09

It was a waste of time. Daniel had spent almost two precious hours compiling data and doing the painstaking translations to assemble the presentation that he was being forced to give to the Pentagon's representatives. What should happen is he hands them a list of what he needs and they give it to him. He could explain later, once the network was built and launched and they had the safety of taking their time with the governmental niceties.

Still, it allowed him to set other things in motion and ease some of the things nagging at the back of his brain. For one, he would become Shifu's legal guardian. He wasn't going to let the boy, his own stepson for whom he had memories of actually fathering in the weird life that only members of the SGC could even hope to understand, become a guinea pig or worse. He'd give the boy a family and a home. Of course, that home would have to have high levels of security, both for the safety of Shifu and also for the above top secret work that he planned to do there. He couldn't spend all his time at the mountain complex, not with a young boy to raise. Sure, he'd need to hire people to watch him and oversee his education for the time being until the network was built and launched, but it was for his own good and Daniel was certain he'd understand that. So he'd need a house large enough to handle the multiple uses he required, a staff that was suddenly becoming larger than he'd ever expected to once he factored in the boy, the physical house, the security and his own personal staff. But for what the government was spending in this project already, it was a tiny drop in the bucket.

He looked around the table once he finished the explanation of what they were building and how it worked. "Bottom line is, it's going to require the entire resources of the entire SGC to focus on the retrieval of raw nadquada for the time being," he finished as he adjusted his glasses.

"Well if we ask the Tok'ra for help-" Sam started, though Daniel cut her off as if she hadn't been speaking at all.

"Major Davis, you've prepared a budget and timetable based on the data?"

Sam spread her hands and stared at Daniel. He just cut her off without even acknowledging her. This new overly focused Daniel was going to take some getting used to. She just hoped nobody throttled him beforehand.

Major Paul Davis had been the liaison to the Pentagon since the start of the program and was no stranger to the halls or briefing room of Stargate Command. He cut a handsome figure in his sharp uniform. In contrast to the well-worn and often dirtied BDUs worn by the SG teams, he was always pressed and sharp. Even his hair was never out of place. The attention being shifted to focus on him caused him to sit up a little in his chair. "The Pentagon had budgeted the construction and launch of the satellite network at eighty billion dollars with the estimated time of completion to be two years after the start date," he recited from memory, not needing to consult the notes in front of him and the two other representatives who sat along his side of the table.

"That's unacceptable," Daniel countered without pause.

It was clear to Major Davis that Doctor Jackson had no idea what had gone into the preparation of the budget and timeline. They had already made many compromises that he was uncomfortable with and the public finding out about the program was already dangerously close to happening with the budget that they had allocated. There was no way they could do this on their own.

"Well if we involve the Russians in a cooperative effort," he started, only to be cut off by Daniel with a firm "No."

Every person at the table blinked up at Daniel.

"I'm sorry?" Davis stammered. It took a lot to blindside him. Daniel's refusal to work with their allies on something so important was one of those things capable of taking him by surprise.

Daniel started to wonder if anyone had been listening to him all this time. "I said no."

General Hammond glanced at Sam from the corner of his eyes and realized she was as taken aback as he was, but before he could render an argument, Major Davis spoke up again.

"The Russian government has agreed to stop using their Stargate on the condition we share all information gathered by the SGC," he reminded Daniel. "We have to tell them."

There was a simple answer. "No we don't." Besides, Daniel thought, they could argue that the information wasn't gathered by the SGC but by Daniel himself who just happened to be an employee of the program. It was enough of a loophole to keep them arguing for months if they even found out. Davis started to protest and Daniel cut him off again. He knew what the major's protest was going to be before he said it. "It's okay. I have a way of rendering their Gate inactive."

This was news to Sam. "You do?"

Major Davis shelved that bit of information to the back of his mind, knowing there was a lot of impact that this information would have at some point but he didn't have the time or energy to follow those trails just now as much as he wanted to. It was why he thrived in his position, being able to expertly play the long term strategies of politics without losing sight of the more immediate issues and the ripple effects they would have down the line. "That's really not the point," he mentioned to Sam.

"The point is," Daniel insisted, "we don't know if the Russians are turning around and trading those secrets. This project is too important to get screwed up by petty Earth politics. We're talking about protecting this entire planet from Goa'uld occupation." As much as Major Davis wanted to argue that specific point, he had to agree that Daniel did have a point. A misguided point, but one that seemed perfectly valid to him. He was looking at the situation as a civilian who had limited experience in politics, after all.

"I imagine that several of the so-called petty nations of this planet are going to be very curious when we start launching satellite weapons into orbit two years from now," he pointed out to Daniel.

"One year from now." To Daniel, even a year was too long. They had to protect themselves now. He had to push back on this. It was the safety of the planet that was at stake.

 _One year?_ Major Davis had always had high levels of respect for Doctor Jackson and his work. Time and again SG-1 had pulled humanity's collective asses out of the fire and he was a large part of it. He had quite literally died protecting his fellow people and an action like that never lost its importance even if that death had only been temporary. But he was asking too much. There was no way they could make this work, not without involving their allies and making the program public. It was simply too much of a drain already.

"That's impossible. It would double the cost," he protested.

Daniel shot him a look. "Then it's not impossible, is it?"

Suddenly Davis felt like he did when he visited his friend who had a toddler and listening to the kid argue with the sort of laser-focused logic only a child could have. No, it wasn't impossible in theory. It was in execution that things fell apart. There were too many moving pieces to juggle already. Doubling the number would make it a logistical nightmare, not to mention the sheer amount of funneled funds into the project that would need to be hidden as well.

"Obviously most of the workload will have to be contracted out to the private sector," Daniel continued as he handed out folders stamped TOP SECRET that held the breakdowns. "So there'll have to be a strategic division of labor in order to maintain the security of the project." He held out another slim blue folder. "Major Davis, if you could also see to this."

Davis looked at the folder and back up to Daniel. "What is this?"

Daniel shifted his weight from one hip to the other impatiently. He wanted to get back to work, not stand around explaining things that could be answered by simply opening up the folder Davis had in his hands. "Just a few personal requirements I'm sure the Pentagon will be happy to provide me with given the nature of my continued contributions. Please see that it gets approved as soon as possible." Davis opened his mouth and closed it a few times, unable to do more than gape at the sheer audacity. "Gentlemen," Daniel continued as he turned, heading back to his lab.

Davis finally found his voice. "Personal requirements," he repeated with a nod as if this were the most natural thing in the world. Only at the SGC could a formerly dead discredited civilian consultant make demands of the Pentagon to the cost of a hundred and sixty billion dollars.

A look across the table showed that General Hammond was stone-faced as he watched the door where Daniel had departed and Major Carter just looked gobsmacked.

Once he settled back into his office, Daniel opened the box he had taken from the shelf in Sam's lab and opened it. Nestled inside was a Goa'uld ribbon device and he lifted it out almost reverently and slid it onto his hand. He could almost feel the thrum of power he could call forth and channel through it, if only his blood had the required composition.

He was so intently studying it that he was almost startled by Jack's arrival through the door. "Hey. What's going on?" Noticing the device, Jack felt a slight fizzle up the back of his neck. Daniel wearing a Goa'uld device was the thing of nightmares to him. "What are you doing?"

Daniel moved his hand, feeling the subtle shift of the weight of the device. "I know exactly how this works now but you need naquada in your blood or you can't make it do anything," he explained as if it were perfectly natural.

Jack nearly stomped his way further into the lab. "Have you considered that maybe that's a good thing?" he demanded as Daniel's eyes went back to focus on the device on his hand.

"Something on your mind?" he asked, eyes still on the device.

"Your behavior as a matter of fact," Jack spit out.

His behavior? Daniel plucked absently at the ribbon device as he glanced up at Jack and back down again. "What about it?"

For a moment, Jack almost gave in to the lost expression on Daniel's face before he remembered the reason for his irritation. "Well for starters," he asked, "who gave you the authority to give orders around here?"

The words, "Actually, the Pentagon," slipped out before Daniel realized it. He ignored the awkwardness that popped up between them and shook his head. "Look, maybe I haven't exactly been patient lately, but I'm just doing what has to be done," he insisted. "I have the knowledge. I have to make sure it gets used properly. Now I can elevate us to the point of wiping out the Goa'uld or I can watch it all go to waste."

Jack bit back a comment that not being patient was as big an understatement as saying that the Goa'uld were kinda mean. He was trying his best to stay calm but Daniel had a way of getting under his skin on a good day and this was far from a good series of days. "You're under a lot of pressure. I understand."

"I recommended you to oversee the entire naquada retrieval operation." The way Daniel looked when he said it made Jack wonder if this was supposed to be his version of an apology.

Jack wasn't buying it. "Oh yeah, thank you very much by the way. I can either accept the position or retire!" His voice snapped and Daniel bristled.

"Why aren't you you behind me on all this?" Daniel barked back. "I mean, I'm finally taking your position! Let's build weapons. Let's kick some Goa'uld ass. So what, because it's me saying it, I'm suddenly a bad guy?"

That was it. Daniel felt it to his bones. Jack was undermining him because he wanted to be the savior. He wanted to be the one to call the shots. He never thought Daniel was capable of making the hard decisions, of making that final call. Daniel would show him.

When Jack tilted his head and asked, "Where's Teal'c?" something inside Daniel snapped. He lifted the ribbon device and focused on it, feeling it build with power. The heat of the crystal inside warmed his palm and spread that tingling warmth up to his elbow and a beam of energy shot forth from the center of his palm, striking Jack and throwing him backward so hard that his body crashed into the bookshelves several feet behind him.

With a jolt, he was back to reality and shook his head slightly. Jack watched his expressions filter through several until he finally landed on one and looked back up. "He's on a mission," Daniel finally responded in a quiet voice.

"What mission?"

Daniel suddenly looked annoyed. "The one I sent him on." And here was the crux of what brought Jack to the lab in the first place. He received a memo that one of the members of his own team had been sent off by another member of his team and he found out after the fact. It bothered him, not just as the leader of SG-1 but as the second-in-command of the SGC and as the best friend of both the teammates in question. It hurt and not just on a professional level.

"When's he going to be back?"

The look of annoyance on Daniel's face deepened. "When he's done. Look Jack, I've got a lot of work to do and so do you. So please, help me... or leave."

Daniel turned away, his attention back on the ribbon device on his hand. Jack just stared after him, unable to make sense of the exchange. Maybe Daniel wasn't the only one who needed to get some rest.

Daniel didn't even notice him leave.


	10. Chapter 10

Major Paul Davis had recently refused one promotion already, preferring to remain in his role as a liaison to the Pentagon on all things related to the Stargate program. He'd grown comfortable over the past few years and felt a certain pride in his work. He had been through the Stargate only a few times, but it was enough to give him an in-the-trenches idea of what the teams went through. Even though his ventures to other planets had been brief, uneventful and diplomatic in nature and he had thankfully avoided the uncertainty and firefights that first contact teams like SG-1 had to encounter on a regular basis, he was content. He wasn't meant for front line combat even though he felt confident in his ability to hold his own should he ever be faced with it.

No, Major Paul Davis preferred his battlefield to be around a table with a well-honed sense of wisdom and politics as his weapons of choice. His form of adrenaline fix was countering politicians.

It was still exhausting at times and the past seven months since the AG3 program started had proven no different.

He rubbed a hand across his face and reached for his coffee, finding his mug to only contain the cold dredges of coffee. He waved a younger officer over to refill it as he picked the folder back up and scanned the page again.

"I'm afraid I just don't see it," he pointed out to Major Samantha Carter who sat across from him.

Sam gnawed absently at the edge of her thumbnail. For her to come to him with concerns about the program wasn't unusual. What was out of the ordinary though was her insistence that there was something underhanded taking place and by someone from her own team. Granted, SG-1 had been effectively disbanded, having been put on hold for the duration, but the ties of the flagship team of the SGC went deep. He'd underestimated their unique sense of camaraderie in the past and he wasn't about to make that mistake again.

"He shouldn't be able to access the device, sir," she continued. "But I _saw_ it. Even if he claims it wasn't what I thought I saw. There's something going on with him. He's changed." The truth was, for Daniel to utilize the healing device that she'd seen him use when he wasn't expecting anyone in his office, he either needed the presence of naquada in his system or he had somehow engineered it to bypass that requirement. The required scans all SGC staff underwent showed that he had no signs of a Goa'uld present in him at any time, leaving the only other option to be a method of bypassing the lack of the metal in his blood. If he was able to do that, they could utilize it to make a readily available device for healing the general population. At the very least they would make leaps and bounds in their technology that was currently limited by very few individuals meeting the minimum requirement.

General Hammond remained silent, but the man next to him, a career desk jockey named General Landry who had been working with the Pentagon on matters of national defense and was being briefed on the specs of the new defense system, frowned. "I thought Dr. Jackson was a trusted and invaluable member of your team, Major."

"He was. He _is_." Sam felt herself slump down slightly into the seat despite herself. She felt like a kid again, called into the principal's office to rat out a friend for acting up on the playground. "I'm not saying I don't trust him-"

"But isn't that exactly what you are saying?" Landry asked, cutting her off with a pointed look, leaving her to squirm in her chair.

General Hammond broke his silence. "I believe what the Major is saying is that she has concerns regarding the lack of detailed information flowing between the groups working on specific sections of the project."

Sam wasn't sure if it was the familiar voice that set her a bit more at ease or if it was the lack of focus on her deteriorating relationship with Daniel. He was supposed to be her teammate. More than that, he was her friend.

"What I mean, sirs, is that without fully understanding how the system works, and I don't just mean on a technical level, it's hard for me to have the full level of input that you are requesting of me. I can't verify that the weapon couldn't be used, for example, on an Earth-bound target."

Paul's eyes narrowed slightly. "Are you implying Earth as the target or are you assuming that one of the Goa'uld vessels makes it past the barrier system and onto the planet?"

"Well, both," she continued uncertainly, her blue eyes darkening with worry. "Look, I know Daniel. We all do- except for you of course, General Landry, but you've seen enough reports to know that he isn't just a good scholar and researcher, he's a very moral person. I could never see him doing anything that would endanger the welfare of any human on Earth. Or any of our allies for that matter. The concern I have is if the system were to ever be taken over by someone outside of our program. We need to ensure that there are proper failsafes in place for such an event."

Not for the first time in the past several weeks, Sam wished Jack hadn't been forced into a position where he felt retirement was a better option. With Teal'c still missing, she felt adrift. She'd become more accustomed to her team than to her uniform.

"I see," Landry said softly as he set his folder onto the table and folded his hands over it. "What exactly are you proposing?"

"That Daniel submit a detailed outline of the system. We can encrypt it and lock access to only those that we trust. He's still stating that he's worried about knowledge of the mere existence of the AG3 network leaking out. While I both agree and disagree with aspects of that stance, I can't force him to comply."

The unspoken addition of _but you can_ hovered in the air and her eyes silently pleaded with Hammond.

Paul cleared his throat, subtly drawing attention back to himself.

"Thank you for your report, Major Carter. I'll be sure that the Pentagon takes it under advisement. For the time being, however, completion of the system by any means necessary is our top priority. If this means doing things as originally outlined by Dr. Jackson, we'll continue that way."

Sam nodded her silent assent to the statement. She expected nothing less, especially since they were going on her gut feeling with no real data to back it up.

General Hammond shot her a glance from the corner of his eye in a show of support. He hadn't outright admitted to it, but she knew he had some misgivings about the way things were going as well, even though his trust in Daniel was unshakable as her own.

"In the meantime," Paul continued, a bit of a smile showing on his face, "the President sends his congratulations on a well-executed first testing of the targeting system. Your incorporation of the software you wrote for the Stargate dialing device to account for spacial drift into the AG3 network was ingenious. I wouldn't be surprised for a commendation to be in the works, Major."

'Thank you, sir," she said quietly, trying to muster a smile. "Just doing my job."

Of course, as a member of the Air Force, Stargate Command and SG-1, just doing her job quite regularly involved saving the world. Sam didn't need a medal, she just needed her best friend back and the sooner this system was in place and working, the sooner the team could patch things up and focus on finding their missing Jaffa.

Hammond tapped the folder in front of him. "I believe we all have quite a bit of work ahead of us. Dismissed. And Major Carter, please keep me updated on Daniel's behavior. If you think it's becoming problematic, we should take action sooner rather than later."


	11. Chapter 11

Flames from the braziers licked the air. He smiled, watching the shadows play against the light, giving the room a sense of pageantry worthy of his status. It was a subtle silent reminder that he was to be as feared as he was loved. Thousands of years of ruling, of being a god, entitled him to this. It was more than simply declaring yourself to be so, it required strategies and a flair for dramatics. Being a god wasn't about subjugating the humans. He took care of them. Protected them. Ensured that they were given what they needed in order to provide him with what he needed in return. If they felt a sense of worship in return, it was only natural.

His eyes opened as he heard his Jaffa guards approach in the hallway, the scraping sound accompanying them alerting him that they brought the prisoner as requested.

Requested? Demanded. He did not need to make requests of his own guards.

The trio approached and the face of his prisoner was awash in the light of the flames. _Apophis._ Shadows made the lines etched on his face deeper. He looked broken. Used. Empty. "Please have mercy," the prisoner pleaded, his resonating voice that once commanded countless troops as unsteady as his legs. "I beg you."

The prisoner knew nothing of begging. He knew nothing of pain. He did not deserve mercy.

He raised his hand, a ribbon device activating. A glowing beam shot forth, gold and white boring into Apophis' forehead, rendering him unable to even scream out.

It wasn't good enough. There wasn't enough pain. His enemy deserved worse, far worse, for the destruction and heartbreak he'd left in his path. He pushed for more, taxing the device to maximum output.

As Daniel felt the power flow through him and seep the life away from his enemy, he felt unfulfilled. He felt old wounds rip back open just as he ripped them open into his target.

And then he awoke.

Some nights like this one he would dream of Apophis. Of extracting revenge on him. Of feeling his life slip away, listening to him beg for mercy he never showed and did not deserve. He would feel a sense of power, knowing he could easily take his place among the System Lords and undermine them from within.

But...

Some nights he would dream of Sha're. He would remember the quiet, simple life he lived on Abydos. It was a harder life in many ways, lacking any sort of convenience, but there was an earnest honesty to it that he found himself longing for, especially after the past year of politics and contracts and project management. But the thing he missed the most of those days on Abydos was that he never had to wake up alone. A glance at the empty side of the bed, sheets cool from lack of use, and he felt a lurch in his heart.

He had been doing this the past year to keep anyone else from ever having to feel this pain, this loneliness. Even his own former team didn't understand. Sam had pulled away months ago, not just from him but from Shifu as well. As eager as she was to be an aunt to Cassie, it seemed two alien children were too taxing on her. Not that it mattered. Soon the system would be online and he could devote his attention and time to Shifu as he had intended all along. He would raise the boy to be strong and merciless- no. Strong and caring. Like his mother had been. Like his beautiful Sha're.

Jack was long gone. Daniel stopped trying to reach out. He'd officially retired once again. It really was up to Daniel alone to carry on the drive and determination and mission of SG-1. He resorted to his old tactics of pulling an invisible cloak of steel around himself to keep him from being hurt again by those around him. The past few years had been a nice respite and it had felt good to have a family, but he didn't need one. Not anymore. He'd do everything in his power to protect them, but he didn't _need_ them.

As he padded barefoot across the room to head downstairs to get coffee, he heard something outside. A glance out the window showed it was one Major Samantha Carter at the gate's security checkpoint. She pulled out her credentials and was waved through. He frowned to himself. She'd been gone for months, ever since their last argument over the project. Her showing up again as they were doing the final tests of the system couldn't be mere coincidence. He shoved his feet into slippers, tugged on his robe and swept into the hall where he was greeted by his assistant.

"Good morning, Doctor Jackson," she chirped in that annoyingly perky way only morning people and the young could pull off. She handed him his daily agenda. "The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is already waiting for your 0900 briefing. You also have a message from Carl Smith at NASA regarding the AG's disbursement mechanism."

He flipped open the folder and scanned the overview page. "Are they on schedule yet?" He'd had to allocate seventeen percent more resources to the launch than originally planned as NASA's engineers found themselves less than capable of adapting their existing tech to the Goa'uld design. The network was built and ready to go once a final test was signed off on, but they still had no valid way to get it into space. It was irritating being so close to feeling safe yet being unable to achieve it. He frowned deeper as she responded in the negative. "Unbelievable."

Staff hurried around them as the descended to the main floor, everyone doing their best to look busier than normal upon spotting Daniel. His mere presence caused them to double-time. "And," his assistant continued uncertainly, "Major Carter is here to see you." She hadn't been there when it happened, but she had heard all too many times about the fight between her new boss and the Major. She wasn't sure if the tale had grown with retellings or if it was based in fact. She had yet to see him lose his temper, but he carried himself like someone who wasn't used to being denied anything and would be rather determined to get his way.

He was a genius, that was easy to see. The way he slipped effortlessly from one language to the next on conference calls, the diagrams she'd seen of the security network he had designed and just the wording he used all pointed to the mind of a genius. She'd looked into him when she accepted the job several weeks prior. Aside from the fact that he'd disappeared around six years prior after being professionally ruined, he had an impressive track record. To have one Ph.D. after your name by his age was impressive, let alone more than one. And if he'd been working on this ultra-classified network for years, it's no wonder he'd dropped off the face of academia. Now he tore his attention between completion of this project and the strange young boy he'd taken in from some monastery or other. It was amazing to her that he'd had as much time as he had previously for friendships, professional or otherwise. But by all accounts, he and Major Carter had been incredibly close. Some even suspected them of being more than friends, though she had never gotten that feeling. Maybe because she had seen him in the aftermath of a dream about his murdered wife that he clearly still mourned. She wouldn't even know that much if she hadn't been clued in by other staff. Information on Daniel Jackson or his life was preciously hard to come by even on the dark web. One of the techs had run a full scan, finding bits of information that he passed on in a whisper over lunch. He was gone the next day. She still had no idea where he'd been sent.

"Send her away," Daniel mumbled, voice still heavy with sleep and regret. He paused at the bottom of the stairs before adding, "And find out why she still has a valid security pass."

She nodded and may have spoken, but Daniel was already turning down the hallway, as oblivious to her as he was to the others who greeted him.

Absently he moved a finger to push up the thin metal frame of his glasses out of habit, but found nothing there. Then he remembered, he hadn't worn glasses in months. He was in better physical shape than ever, even though he only slept a few hours a night and hardly ate. Apparently most habits died hard.

He swept into the kitchen, single mindedly focused on how to bypass the mechanism that NASA was having such a hard time figuring out. Noticing Shifu already at the table and engrossed in a bowl of colorful cereal, he waved the housekeeper off. "I'm not hungry," he mumbled to her.

Shifu put down his spoon and smiled brightly at him. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day," he recited chipperly.

"Oma teach you that?" Daniel asked, glancing up and realizing that Shifu was, yet again, in his robes. He thought he'd told them to find more appropriate clothing in the kid's size. After a year, he should have adapted better to life on Earth.

Or maybe in some ways he'd adapted too well. "Television!" he responded with a large grin.

Daniel finished pouring his coffee. "Glad I've been such a positive influence."

He'd barely put the carafe back down when a shout of his name echoed through the hallway, followed by the sound of running feet. Sam lurched into the room, yanked back by the pair of security guards that had caught up to her. His assistant trailed along behind. "I'm sorry, she insisted."

Daniel waved off the worried girl. "It's okay," he said, willing to let this slide. He knew Sam and how resolute she could be, how determined in getting her way. He wasn't surprised she'd slipped through security and had half expected it to happen.

The security guards lowered their weapons and she jerked herself free of their grip. "You can't seriously think you're going to get away with this," she hissed.

"What are you talking about, Sam?"

"What you're doing. What you've got planned!" Sam watched him as he looked away, unsure if he wasn't willing to meet her eyes because he was ashamed or because he was lying.

Once she wouldn't have had to wonder. Once he never would have kept anything from her, even if he had been ashamed. But this was long past those days. "That's why you had me removed from the project," she continued. "You knew I'd figure it out eventually."

Daniel frowned, his expression sad. "I relieved you of your responsibilities because you were starting to crack under the pressure. You seem to have lost all perspective." She choked back a laugh. "Quite frankly, I think your jealousy finally got the best of you."

Sam stared at him. "Jealousy?! I'll tell you why it's hard to maintain perspective, Daniel," she spit out. "Strategic division of labor. All in an effort to stop anyone from seeing the big picture."

Well of course. That was the whole idea of strategic division of labor. Sam had known that from the first moment when he broke it down in the SGC briefing room. It was stupid to think he had to sit here and waste his time being barked at by a former coworker that he'd already fired. It would be so easy to, with merely a wave of his hand, have her dragged out.

An image flashed in his mind of her mouth and eyes burning with the overflow of power from a pain stick applied to the back of her neck. He could hear the throaty cry, feel the crackle of power as it pulsed through her and lit her nerves on fire.

She had no idea how lucky she was that he kept a firm grasp on his control, mostly out of respect for their former friendship.

He quickly looked away, feeling a surge of bile in the back of his throat as he looked at her face. She did love to tax his patience.

"What exactly do you think you've figured out, Sam?"

Her blue eyes were icy as they locked onto his face. "You know damn well what I'm talking about," she spit at him before turning to Shifu. "What have you done to him?"

Daniel felt a surge of anger rise in him as she accused Shifu. "You leave him out of this."

Who did she think she was, bursting in and accusing him of who knows what, then accusing his own son of changing him? Of course he'd changed. He was a father now. He had spent the past year weighed down with not just the need to protect one child but the entire planet. At one point he would have thought Sam of all people would have understood.

"Can't you see what you've become?"

He let out a slightly ragged breath. He was sorry it had come to this. "I didn't change, Sam. You did."

She jerked forward and the two members of his security detail grabbed onto her. "You can't stop me from telling people what's really going on! They'll listen!" she said, voice getting louder as she was dragged away. "You'll never get away with this!"

His assistant watched as Sam was pulled out. There couldn't be any truth to the Major's ramblings. Right? Everyone knew that Daniel Jackson worked harder and longer than anyone to ensure they'd all be safe.

"Is she insane?" she asked to which Daniel responded with a slight nod.

As Shifu glanced at him, Daniel had the strange sensation that the boy was judging him.


	12. Chapter 12

Jack O'Neill was firmly settled into retirement.

He'd retired four months prior. His yard was maintained. He'd planted a few flowers and some creeping vines along the back fence and spent his days monitoring their progress. At least, when he wasn't at the cabin in Minnesota, planted on the dock that was once used for the boat that never left storage anymore, cooler of beer at his side.

He'd been daydreaming of the cabin and considering throwing some of his stuff into a bag and taking off for a few days when his phone rang. It hardly rang anymore. Daniel hadn't spoken to him since his retirement. Sam had become engrossed in that project until she and Daniel had a tiff of some sort. Aside from a couple of attempts to bond again over pizza and beer, they had nothing in common and her misplaced anger kept trying to focus itself on him. They hadn't spoken much since. He tried hard not to think about Teal'c who had been registered as missing in action months prior, not long after Daniel had sent him on his first solo mission. Unable to be part of the search and rescue operation that never went anywhere, Jack had thrown up his arms in frustration and taken retirement as the easy way out.

Hammond still kept him in the loop, though it was all unofficial and Jack was pretty sure he wasn't getting the bulk of the story.

"O'Neill," he grumped into the phone.

Two hours later he was being led into a cell block.

Attempted murder? Carter? Daniel? It made no sense, but there she was, locked up for assaulting members of Daniel's secret service bozos and apparently attempting to kill the big man himself.

He knew it was all bull and as much as he wanted to be, he couldn't bring himself to feel surprised that things had escalated as they did.

"What are you doing, Carter?" he asked as he sauntered toward the cell.

Sam rose from the seat she'd taken. She looked small and pale, the overly large orange jumpsuit not helping at all. Dark circles rimmed under her eyes. "I'm trying to do what's right. I've talked to everyone that I know. Noone is answering my calls, responding to my emails, even my letters."

"Because they think you're nuts," he pointed out.

"What do you think?"

For a moment he wasn't sure how to answer it, or even if he should. Whatever had gone on between Daniel and Carter didn't involved him.

Except it did. It always would.

"We're talking about Daniel here," he pointed out. "Sometimes he can be a little odd. Every once in a while he gets carried away, but he's not going to do anything to jeopardize the entire planet."

Once Sam would have agreed. But now…

"I'm not so sure, sir."

"There are a lot of very smart people who believe in this."

Sam's eyes focused on him. "He's got them brainwashed."

Jack tried to protest. "Carter!"

"What about Teal'c?" she asked in what she knew was a low blow. "You don't still blame Daniel for that?"

"I couldn't prove anything. Can you?"

"No." Even as she said it she could feel her argument deflate. "I just have my opinion. But that used to be worth something to you."

Jack glanced back toward the guard, his voice low. "Look Carter, you helped Daniel create these weapons," he pointed out.

"I know."

His shoulders lifted in a shrug. "Well you couldn't stop it. What do you expect me to do?"

She let her eyes do the begging for her. "Talk to him."

Jack knew that he'd at least try. He owed Carter at least that much and she knew it.

"Sir, you have to try," Sam continued, unaware that Daniel watched on a monitor. Her voice was distant and tinny from the microphone. "Somebody has to stop him before it's too late."

Daniel swallowed back the feeling of betrayal. Why couldn't they just accept that he knew best this one time. Was it so hard to understand that he had access to knowledge that far surpassed anything they were capable of?

A few days later, Jack stood in what he was pretty sure was the living room. Or maybe one of five. The house was huge. And opulent. Gone were the old cracked dusty figurines and stacks of books shoved onto any open surface with a clear disregard for organization that made sense to anyone else. No, this place was big and marble and cold and full of flowers.

Of course the flowers were fake, right? Daniel's allergies would never let him be this surrounded by real flowers. He'd be unable to breathe. It would be the first Abydos mission times ten or more.

Jack moved toward the fireplace and reached up to one of the arrangements of spilling flowers and gently pulled at one. It slid out and flopped from his light grasp onto the floor. Nope, that was real. Nothing fake about that flower.

He bent down to grab it and shoved it back into the arrangement as Daniel came down the hall and called his name in greeting.

"Nice to see you," Daniel said with a smile.

Despite Carter's warning, Jack's heart still tugged a little at seeing Daniel. He'd spent so many months, years even, looking out for the younger man that he felt almost joyous at seeing him alive and well. Not to mention he looked good. Clearly the evil overlord routine Carter accused him of was working for him. "You too," he said with a motion of his arm. "It been a while huh? Love the place. Love what you've done with it."

Weren't bad guys supposed to wear black? Jack couldn't help but notice Daniel was clad in pale colors.

"I'm sorry I haven't kept in touch," he started.

Jack shoved his hands into his pockets, his posture all relaxed. "Eh, you've been busy."

Daniel gave a little smile. If he hadn't seen for himself that Jack was working with Carter to undermine him, he never would have believed it. He didn't think them, either of them, capable of such betrayal. "Yeah well the truth is, we couldn't have done any of this without your help and I probably should have been more appreciative."

Jack deadpanned, "The fruit basket was nice."

"Can't be a coincidence that you showed up here on the day of the launch."

Jack gave his best innocent smile. "Oh, is that today?" he asked, just a little too sing-songy to fool anyone.

Daniel raised his eyebrows a bit. "Yeah. It was supposed to be top secret," he pointed out, not mentioning that with his retirement, Jack lost all levels of clearance.

"Who knew?" Jack asked smugly.

There it was. The smugness that Daniel had ignored for so long. How had he missed how annoying it was? But it was clearer to see now. He had the wisdom and insight brought on by being away from the situation long enough so it came in clear. Jack's little power play wasn't going to phase him. He was prepared for it. Jack had his intel, but it was nothing compared to Daniel's. "You want to stay and watch?"

"You got a big screen?" Jack asked with a grin.

Daniel turned, his own hands in his pockets in a posture reminiscent of Jack's own. "Come here," he called over his shoulder as he took a few steps toward the center of the room and motioned Jack over.

Jack looked wary. "Why?"

"You'll see," Daniel said with a smile as Jack took a few hesitant steps closer before moving his arms to the side. "What?"

With a squeal and woosh, Jack found himself and Daniel bathed in light as a series of rings came up from the floor and surrounded them. With the momentary sense of disjointed stopping of his heart, Jack felt himself deposited in a darker room that had the feeling of being underground. Either his imagination was playing tricks on him, which was likely since the rings usually led either to a spacecraft or a secret bunker of doom, or Daniel had built himself one hell of a basement. One that had a lot of blue lighting for some reason.

Once they were fully reintegrated, Jack's hands moved out to his sides in a motion that showed he had half expected something like that.

"Elevators are such a pain in the ass," Daniel quipped quietly before turning and heading across the room.

The back walls were covered in an array of monitors, grouped into some series that made no sense to Jack. But then, much of it didn't.

Daniel settled himself into what Jack assumed was a control chair and once activated, it extended out, a walkway connecting behind him. That sense of pageantry was in full force.

As he watched, Jack hovered in the background. He felt strangely underdressed for the occasion, even though everyone else in the room was just as casual as he was. He blamed the years of uniforms and the sense of propriety instilled in him by a life in the military. A disembodied voice announced the tertiary systems had gone online.

"What do you think?" Jack could only assume the question was directed at him since he missed the look Daniel shot over his shoulder. Jack's attention was on the monitors as he wandered past them.

The woman at the station near Jack ignored him. "Commence calibration of primary sensor arrays in five, four-" her countdown continued and melted away as Jack peered around. Other voices announced statistics and readiness, making up a low drum in the background.

"It's cool. Kind of like Vegas."

"Actually, we've got three to one odds in favor of the launch going off without a hitch." For a second, Jack could hear the old Daniel in his voice. Maybe since the launch was about to happen and the planet would be protected beyond its newfound barrier of Goa'uld inspired technology, Daniel would come back into the fold.

"I'll take some of that action."

Daniel smiled and looked over at one of his techs. "Put Colonel O'Neill down for a hundred." Jack didn't remind him that he wasn't a Colonel anymore. He was _retired_. Even if it never seemed to last that long, he was hoping this would be the time it would stick. He was done saving the planet. Daniel took up the reigns and did it for him. He wasn't needed, not anymore.

"Got it," the tech responded.

"Dollars, right?" Suddenly Jack wasn't so sure.

Daniel found himself smiling. "I'm glad you're here, Jack. After what happened to Teal'c I thought I'd never see you again."

Jack fought back the surge of adrenaline at mention of the Jaffa. He'd spent so much time railing against his orders that forbid him into looking into Teal'c's disappearance, fought so hard to keep him from being labelled as MIA presumed dead, fought himself with the anger of not knowing if there was truth, if there could be truth, to Daniel's involvement. Just bringing it up again exhausted him and while he would never give up on the adage of never leaving a man behind, he was going to allow himself this one moment of relief once the network was in place and the threat that had kept him on edge for so long was no longer a threat. Besides, if things didn't go according to plan, there was always Plan B.

"Ah, ancient history. Besides I didn't want to miss watching you save the world."

Daniel smirked. "Yeah." He looked around, seeing all he'd done, everything that he had put together. It was worth it. Even if it had cost him friendships. At least those friends would be alive. "Actually Sam thinks I'm trying to take it over," he pointed out.

"Oh, how arch."

Daniel shook his head. "Yeah."

Jack's voice was slightly offhanded. "So you threw her in jail, huh?"

"She was getting dangerous." Daniel pointed out, a bit sadly. "You think the military didn't take all kinds of precautions to make sure I couldn't just control everything?"

Jack glanced around. It sure looked like a central control room to him. "So ah, so what is all this?" he asked, motioning to the chair and monitors.

"Basically a big screen TV so we can watch and fix things if it goes wrong."

Jack didn't have a chance to ask anything else before the tech from earlier interrupted them.

"Dr. Jackson? The chairman of the Joint Chiefs is on channel one," she informed him.

Daniel reached over and tapped some buttons and General Vidrine's face appeared on the largest monitor. To judge by the chair and ambient lighting, he was calling from the War Room in the White House.

"Congratulations, Dr. Jackson," the General said with an expression that was as close to a smile as Jack had ever seen from the man. "We've all worked very hard for this day."

Daniel bowed his head for a moment. "Thank you. And congratulations to you."

The General continued. "We're a go for launch. Commencing twenty second countdown." The view on the screen changed, moving from the General to the overlay of the main launch pad with a timer running down in the corner.

"All systems are go. The clock is running," a tech intoned in the background.

Daniel glanced over toward Jack. "We've got twenty four delivery systems all launching concurrently. Each one is carrying twelve AG3s that will disperse once they reach orbit."

As Jack studied the screen, he realized the tech had started the final countdown. Stats and locations scrolled. Buenos Aires. Malta. Jack could barely keep up with the data that was scrolling, especially when he was distracted by the rocket. He was still a flyboy at heart, after all.

"We have liftoff."

Daniel swallowed hard. This was the moment of truth and he'd worked long and hard to get there. The rocket on the screen flew straight into the air and broke the atmosphere.

"Switching to disbursement tracking system," another tech said as the screen changed to an overview of Earth, quickly scrolling outward to a view from orbit. It was dizzying and beautiful. As Jack watched, a series of dots appeared strategically placed around the globe.

He had to admit, it was genius and it was too easy to lose himself in the moment. Part of him was thrilled. After so many years of fighting, of worrying, they were about to have a safety net that would keep the planet safe. It was one of those times when the ends justified the means, right? But a glance away from the screen over to Daniel caused a lurch within him.

Sometimes when he saw Daniel, he still saw him as the awkward geek forcing his way onto the team for the first Abydos mission. Now he was anything but awkward. He sprawled in the control chair, confident and strong.

The room suddenly seemed small, like it was closing in at the edges. Jack fought back a fizzle of claustrophobia and focused back on the main screen.


	13. Chapter 13

The rocket sliced through the air at maximum speed, leaving a trail of scorched air behind it. It entered the thin layers of the atmosphere and with a final burst pushed free of the gravitational pull of the planet and into true orbit. In the silent darkness, the outer panels fell away and the first set of satellites were released, scattering through the void to their pre-programmed destinations. Simultaneously this happened around the globe, the pyramid-shaped anti-Goa'uld devices locking into place and forming a loose grid pattern with enough overlap of coverage to account for the spacial drift that had been the bane of the Stargate program's existence for so long.

Everyone in the room let out a puff of breath in relief, the sound countered by quiet chatter of the technical staff. "The network is in place," was finally announced and Jack felt a brief moment of joy followed by a strange emptiness. Despite being retired, he had had a secret hope deep inside that he would someday be called back as necessary even though he dreaded that day. But now? Now he was obsolete. He never felt so old.

Daniel's voice cut through. "That's it," he breathed in a voice undertoned by awe. It sounded like the Daniel he had known and lost. But moments later, the new arrogant version of his once best friend came back to the forefront. "Pay the winners."

Jack glanced over, Daniel was so intently watching the screen that he didn't notice Jack studying his profile and fighting back the wave of sadness at realizing that in trading off for the safety of the world, he'd lost an important part of himself.

Several minutes later, he tried not to flinch in reaction as the pop of the champagne bottle echoed through the small space. Some reactions never died out and he still felt his arm twitch as if to move to his thigh for the holstered sidearm that no longer kept residence there.

As Daniel finished pouring a glass and held it out to him, Jack waved it off.

"You sure?" Daniel asked, surprised. "It's uh, two thousand dollars a bottle." He handed the two thousand dollar bottle off to an assistant. "Come on Jack. You're about to become an international hero."

A what? "How do you mean?" he asked, eyes narrowing slightly.

Daniel waved his glass of champagne around to indicate the room at large, or at least what the monitors stood for. "Well now that we have a way of defending ourselves against the Goa'uld, the President is going to make the Stargate's existence public knowledge."

This was not in the intel Jack had received and he tried to not look as surprised as he felt. He should have seen it coming. He'd dreaded the day even though he knew it would help clarify things for so many people in their lives. He certainly never hoped the day would come so he would be labeled as a hero. He'd grown used to his life being classified. It was a barrier he'd grown used to keeping in place.

"Dr. Jackson?" The tech, and Jack realized he knew none of their names, interrupted and changed the main view to a breaking news report.

"I'm Amy Jenson, live on Capitol Hill." Daniel turned, taking in the view of the reporter. As she announced the President having postponed his public address, he hurried over to his control chair, flicking off a slosh of champagne from his fingertips and shoved the glass off onto someone he passed. There was only one public address that was scheduled and that meant the Stargate announcement was being overruled by something else. This wasn't a good sign.

The reporter rambled in the background about the launch of a communications network and the lack of an official statement.

As the chair activated and slid into position, Daniel flipped the screen back to General Vidrine. "What's going on?" he demanded of the General.

This close to the screen, Jack could see the lines etched into Vidrine's face. He pretended to not be paying attention, looking away even though the words assaulted his ears and he couldn't help but listen.

"The Russians have gone on high alert. The Chinese are following suit." As Vidrine announced it, Jack tried to fool himself that he felt any sort of surprise. Certainly they had to expect that. They'd been kept out of the loop and they _knew_ about the Stargate program. Despite himself, Jack settled in at the edge of one of the stations, turning to watch the screen as he realized there was no use pretending he wasn't there bearing witness to the whole thing. Once upon a time, he would have been the one calling the shots about the whole thing. "The Russians are repositioning one of the anti-satellite weapons. Looks like they're going to try and take out one of our AG3s."

Daniel unclenched his jaw and fought back a wave of anger. They were supposed to be allies. They weren't supposed to be interfering. "Did they respond to the statement?"

"The Russian Parliament considers the secret development and deployment of this new alien technology weapons system to be a direct violation of prior agreements to share all information garnered through the Stargate program," Vidrine continued. Jack couldn't help but feel thankful he wasn't in the position of having to diffuse the situation. As much as he felt like a helpless bystander, the weight of command was no longer his to bear. Still, he couldn't just let the General's words wash over him without turning them over in his head and formulating plans. It was reflex by now even if all he could do was listen. "Unless control of this system is relinquished immediately, it will be considered an act of aggression and will be responded to as such."

Daniel let out a slight sigh. "That's pretty much what we expected," he pointed out to which the General agreed. "Then my advice to the President would be that we have to demonstrate what we are capable of."

Jack couldn't remain still even as he sat there. He tried to keep an eye on his hands, on the floor, on the edge of the view screen. Anywhere but the eyes of the two men as they spoke and held the future of the country, of the planet, in their hands.

"I have suggested that to him already," Vidrine stated. Jack felt ice flood his veins at the next words. "And the President agrees."

The screen cut out as Washington signed off and finally Jack looked up and over at Daniel as the authorization came through to target the offensive Russian satellite.

To his credit, Daniel looked like he was struggling with the issue. He swallowed hard and Jack turned to watch the screen as the drama unfolded many miles above the heads of what looked to be Africa.

High in orbit, module seventeen had just slid into position. Sixteen was still repositioning itself for maximum coverage, allowing the Russian satellite to slide past it. Lines of code skimmed through the internal workings of Seventeen, turning it and locking it into a holding pattern as far away, Jack O'Neill, Air Force Colonel _retired_ , watched a view screen as a lock focused on the bit of Russian machinery. "We have target lock. System is firing," murmured in the background, giving a play-by-play of the events unfolding on the screen.

Power built within AG Seventeen, evidenced by a slowly moving bar that spread across the bottom of the status screen, then flatlined as the power it represented was expelled through a beam into space, shattering the Russian metal device as if it were an ant under a high powered magnifying glass in the sun.

The target had been eliminated.

It was all so precise, so _distant_.

Years before, the Air Force had rigged Jack up to a series of sensors and stuffed his lanky frame into an aircraft simulator. He flew countless mission scenarios, he did drive-by bombings, he engaged in dogfights that he won more often than not. The entire time, a series of geeks compiled data and passed it along to more geeks who were designing unmanned crafts to be used in combat scenarios. Human pilots, even if they were not situated in the cockpit but in a similar simulator far away, acted and reacted differently than a pure machine. They took some of their more experienced pilots and used them as guidelines for the best way to build these crafts for the unique ways they would be taxed in service.

Jack hated it. He'd attempted to remotely fly some of the prototypes but he could never get his brain to make up for the dissociation brought on by not being there in the actual plane. The younger pilots, the ones raised on video games and caffeine, adapted far easier. Jack felt the same awkward disconnect as he watched the satellite work.

"Target has been eliminated."

Jack knew he should feel elated at the announcement, but he didn't. He only hoped that was as far as it would go. One display of power to cow the opposition and they could all go home, have a beer and hide out until the announcement of the Stargate was made and died down. He'd have to stock up on beer on the way back to his place. He had a feeling he wouldn't want to be out in public for a while, and even if he did there was a feeling of overwhelming sadness he couldn't shake.

No matter the outcome, it was likely the last time he would ever see Daniel again.

He wasn't really sure anymore that Daniel was even the same Daniel he'd known for so long. He hated to think that maybe, just maybe, Carter had been right all along.

Vidrine's face popped back up on the main viewscreen. "Very effective."

The smugness dripped from the General's words. "Everyone here is quite impressed," he mentioned, as if they hadn't just destroyed a piece of very expensive equipment and taken an aggressive position against an ally in both politics as well as the Stargate program.

"Let's hope the Russians are impressed as well," Daniel said, the way he tapped on the arm of the chair showing his displeasure with the events. It was like he had choreographed the sequence to be a carefully crafted dance and the dancers had changed the routine without consulting him.

General Vidrine didn't seem to notice. "We predicted their next step would be to launch more anti-satellite weapons and that's exactly what they're doing. I'm sure they're moving their rockets into position as we speak," he predicted.

Jack fussed with his hands, wanting to stand up and interject, demand to know how it had escalated so far already. _Dammit Daniel_ , he thought, _Why couldn't we have just alerted them prior to the launch? It's too late to steal the information or sabotage the equipment. The Goa'uld were too late to do anything about it anyway even if they did find out through spies._

But instead he remained sitting, channeling his energy through his hands and a subtle tapping of his foot as he struggled to stay out of it.

Daniel was doing that thing with his jaw again. The tensing of it that made him grind his back molars. They should be nubs by now. He shouldn't have any enamel left on them with as much as he'd been clenching these past months. "And your next step?" he asked, gnawing at his lower lip thoughtfully.

"We're preparing a proportional response. I'm recommending we take out their launch site."

That's what Daniel was afraid of. Jack, too.

Jack swallowed back the taste of acid and bile that built in the back of his throat and turned to watch Daniel, his shoulders tensed as he pulled his hands together and bowed his head, fingertips pressed into the bridge of his nose.

"This is all leading to a full scale nuclear attack though, isn't it?" Daniel asked in a low voice as he rested his chin on his fingertips and played out multiple scenarios in his head.

"Unless we comply with their demands, yes," the General replied in a monotone voice. "That would be a high probability."

Jack wasn't sure that he heard correctly at first when Daniel mumbled, "Shouldn't we just nip this in the bud?"

The General took a breath, torn between action and the reactive stance he was being forced to take. "Given our new ability to defend ourselves, we don't see the need to jump the gun. The President is currently rethinking our position on unilateral control of the system."

Daniel had been afraid of that stance. He saw clearly what would happen. The President would hesitate and in that moment, people would die. "I see." Without pause, he reached over and pressed a button.

Jack glanced to the secondary screens as an alert box appeared announcing activation of the override control system.

SYSTEM CONTROL OVERRIDE blared across the screen in large green letters.

Alarms flared in Washington and Jack marveled at the monotone level of Vidrine's voice. He knew all too well what was going on without commentary and he felt the bottom fall out as he watched.

"Dr. Jackson? What are you doing?"

Daniel peered at the screen. "As I suspected, the President is obviously failing to overcome a lack of necessary leadership abilities. So I'm going to have to step in and prevent a global nuclear war." Each word was punctuated with a punch of a button.

Jack's head swiveled back from the screen and he looked up at Daniel.

"You're not supposed to be able to do this," Vidrine protested. "You can't do this!"

Daniel ignored his protests and continued initializing the secondary systems. "I've already done this. This bunker is well protected. Don't even think about sending a cruise missile our way."

As Vidrine continued to protest, Daniel cut the feed.

"I don't know about the rest of you but I've had about enough of that guy."

Jack stared at Daniel and then back at the view screens. Ignoring the subtle protest of his knees, he bounded up from his seat on the edge of the platform and stood, turning to watch as Daniel flipped switches at his control seat. "Daniel, what are you doing?"

"Proportional response only makes sense when the playing field is even, Jack. We have a distinct advantage here." Daniel flipped a couple more switches and settled back into his seat, eyes locked onto the main screen as he watched the system come online under his terms, a series of AG3s rotating into their new position. "The problem is, the other side just doesn't realise how wide the gap is. What they really need is a visual aid."

"AG system targeting Moscow," the targetting tech stated and Jack swiveled his head back toward the screen, watching as the overlay zeroed in on Russia and blinked from a white message of ACQUIRING TARGET to the flash of TARGET LOCKED.

Jack swore internally. "Daniel," he started to protest, the single word containing an entire conversation as it did in the past. But gone were the days when they could understand each other with just a lilt to each other's name.

"Don't worry, there's no threat of residual radiation spreading. It's quick and clean. It's like cutting your enemy's heart out with a scalpel." Daniel's voice was distant and focused, like he was absently talking down to a child.

A year prior, even perhaps a month prior, Jack would never have believed Daniel capable of such an act. Surgical as the strike may be, he wasn't the type to ever make that sort of call. Jack had seen him literally die before allowing an innocent population, military or otherwise, be taken out. He'd fought long and hard for years against the military taking the sort of action that he was announcing in such a flat and distant voice.

As if to bolster himself for it, Jack turned back to be sure that the screen showed the weapons system locked on the city.

With a motion made smooth and lightning fast by years of training and field use, Jack reached to his waist and pulled out the gun that had accompanied him on countless issues as his sidearm. He raised it and fired at the man in in the chair, emptying the magazine.

And each of the shots met with the resistance of a Goa'uld personal force field that surrounded the command chair.

Shocked, he lowered the emptied gun.

Daniel didn't even look phased. If anything, a look of disappointment showed on his face.

Even the techs in the room reacted with just snide expressions as if he should have known better.

Jack hated that look.

"Don't you think it was strange you got through security with a loaded gun?" he asked his former team leader.

Jack shrugged slightly, shifting back to the loose, offhanded attitude he usually had. "A little," he admitted.

Daniel just nodded. "You never were that bright," he mentioned, the words slicing through Jack even more than the reverb of the gunshots. Because Jack knew that Daniel, _his_ Daniel that this no longer was, knew better than anyone just how untrue a statement that was. Jack played up the buffoon act but Daniel and the rest of the team had always seen right through it.

"No," he whispered in an agreement, feeling his heart sink into a dark abyss of loss.

High above them in space, satellites spun and went still.

Jack swallowed hard. "Daniel, think about one thing before you do this. We never proved that the kid was a Harcesis." He was grasping at straws, throwing out any last hint of a lifeline he could to bring his friend back to reality before he ran out of time.

Daniel's hands stilled on the controls for a moment and he looked up. "What are you talking about?" he finally asked.

"Everything he put in your head. The Goa'uld have used mind control before!"

"You think this is some elaborate Goa'uld plot?" Daniel asked, going back to his controls, switching the last of the systems into override settings. "To what? Get me to destroy the world?"

Well, yeah. "Think about it, Daniel," Jack pleaded. "We've seen them use kids too."

A flash of a memory, this time one of Daniel's own, pinged in the back of his head, and he remembered Cassie. Cassie was one of the ones he was doing this for and his resolve kicked back in. "They used Shifu to put a bunch of stuff into my head in order to get me to build the weapons, only to eventually turn them on Earth?"

Jack nodded. "Yes. It's possible," he argued.

"There's only one flaw in that theory." Daniel looked up from the controls and fixed Jack with a steady gaze. "You're assuming this is not what I wanted all along."

Daniel's words sent an icy jolt down the length of Jack's spine, settling into his lower back and circling through his stomach like a frozen rope of lead that tangled up his insides.

"Don't," Jack begged quietly, eyes squinted shut for a moment against the vision of Daniel sitting in the chair like it was a Goa'uld throne, his voice monotone and only lacking the deep booming resonance of a true snakehead. "Don't."

It was too late. With a push of a button, the system was locked firing. Jack swung around to watch as a half dozen beams shot forth and focused into a single deadly line that slammed into Moscow.

"Katya!" a young man shouted across the square to a toddler.

Katyushka Mirenova looked up as she heard her father's voice and smiled, a gummy giggle wet with drool beaming across her face as she held her arms out toward him.

He took the picture, already planning to frame it and send it to her grandmother.

The film of the camera disintegrated as the bolt of power hit the center of the city, drilling down to the military installation underground and wiped the city from the map.

Jack choked back a sob as he watched the glow of gold and white energy spread out from the point of impact, obliterating everything.

"Target has been eliminated," someone intoned, but the words were lost on Jack as he felt a dark abyss of pain swallow him whole.

He couldn't form words as he fought back the prickle of tears behind his eyes.

For a moment, Daniel looked like he was regretting the action, but he steeled himself and just stared back at his former friend and lifting his finger off the firing button.


	14. Chapter 14

"Still nothing?" Jack asked, trying to keep a few steps behind Dr. Frasier's shoulder so it didn't seem like he was hovering even when he was coming dangerously close to looming.

They'd spent the past few hours in the infirmary ever since Daniel was found at the foot of the bed in the VIP room with Shifu sitting cross-legged on the edge of the bed watching over him. A medical team hurried the unresponsive archeologist into the infirmary and the boy was currently sitting in a cell under guard, refusing to say anything other than dreams teach and he was teaching him.

Janet was at a loss. "No," she admitted. "There's nothing physically wrong with him. Or at least anything I can find." It grated that there might be something wrong and she was unable to see it. No matter what had come through the SGC infirmary over the years, she'd always been able to get to the bottom of it. Even a virus that turned everyone into the equivalent of cavemen.

Jack ventured, "Except for the fact that he's in a coma."

They'd been through this already and Janet knew the comment for what it was. Jack was trying to downplay the situation with dark humor. "It's not really a coma," she pointed out for the umpteenth time. "He still has rapid eye movement."

As they looked on, Daniel's silent form on the infirmary bed remained just as still as ever.

Jack frowned and turned to leave for the briefing he was already late for.

A briefing he suddenly didn't want any part of when a Tok'ra came in.

"The fact is," Aldwin announced is if nobody else had thought of it, "he may not be the Harcesis at all."

Jack slumped down and glanced over at the General. "Are you saying this could be some sort of Goa'uld trick?" Hammond asked.

Teal'c remained still, hands carefully folded in front of him. "As we have seen, General Hammond, the Goa'uld are not above using human children as weapons."

Sam frowned slightly. "Well all Shifu would say is that he is teaching Daniel."

They'd been over this before and having to cover it again, especially in the presence of a snakehead, irritated Jack. The inaction was grating on him and it didn't help that when he checked in on Daniel, his status had no changed. "So what do we do?"

Aldwin shrugged a little. "As you know the Zatarc detector's original purpose was to detect deception. We could at the very least determine whether the boy is actually Harcesis and possibly what he did to Dr. Jackson."

"Basically a lie detector test," Sam clarified.

"No harm would come to him," Aldwin assured them.

Jack fought the urge to throw up his hands. "And what? Just hope that the kid doesn't explode in the meantime?" After all, the last time they took in a child that a Goa'uld had messed with, she had a bomb planted in her. Teal'c gave him a sidelong look at the reminder.

Aldwin could only offer, "Hope he really is who he says he is."

Jack gave a roll of his eyes and Hammond cut in. "And maybe help Dr. Jackson?" he offered, all eyes veering back to Jack despite the attempt at deflection. Jack just gave a wry purse of his lips. They really had no other choice.

The guards escorted the boy out of the holding cell and to the lab where the equipment had been set up. Sam carefully strapped his arms down. "It's just a precaution," she murmured to him with a smile. "I had this done to me once and I had to wear them too."

Shifu didn't look offended by the restraints. "The body may be chained but the mind is always free," he offered. Sam straightened up and glanced to the observation room where Jack and General Hammond stood watching. Here she was trying to comfort the boy and in return he was trying to comfort her.

Aldwin held out the memory disk. "This will hurt a little," he said as he placed the disk near Shifu's head. "After that I promise you that you will feel no pain. I will merely ask you some questions."

"Questions are plentiful," Shifu stated. "Answers are few."

The Tok'ra couldn't help but smile a little. "We'll try and keep it simple. Ready?"

Shifu gave a nod of his head and Aldwin moved in, placing the disk on his temple. It fired up with a whir. In the observation room, Jack winced in memory at the feeling of the disk activating and firing into his brain. It wasn't that long ago that he and Carter were each strapped into the chair with the device that Anise had created, both of them being pegged as mind-controlled Zatarcs due to their results showing that they were hiding something. Of course they were. The military frowned on ties as close as the ones that SG-1 had formed, especially when they were between a female officer and her male commanding officer. That it hadn't pinged for the relationships he had with Teal'c and Daniel were probably because neither of them fell into the traditional chain of command. No, with Carter he had more to hide and it went deeper than the attraction that they held for each other. SG-1 was more than just a unit. They were a smooth-working family that completed each other's positions in the team and they synced in a way that no other SG team came close to matching.

As the device became active, Sam gently touched Shifu's arm in support. He showed no sign of discomfort even though she knew the sharp momentary pain that went along with the implant linking up to his brainwaves. Harcesis or not, genetically modified for maturity or not, he was still just a young boy and she felt her heart slightly go out to him.

She trailed along after Aldwin as he moved to the control device. Tok'ra or not, the device still had the tell-tale design of Goa'uld technology, culminating in a large base with a sweeping curved arm that held a crystal at the top. "Direct your vision here," Aldwin told the boy as he motioned to the crystal.

Shifu looked at the crystal as directed. He felt the disk warming against his skin, filtering in to scan and measure the waves of his brain for analysis. It had hurt, but only for a brief moment. Still, being in a human body was unusual to him. He had spent so long as a being of pure energy that having any sort of sense of feeling was unusual and he easily ignored the quick jolt of pain.

The screens on the device glowed into life. The crystal focused on the child's eye and took the initial measurements to act as the control.

"First question," Aldwin continued. "What is your name?"

"Shifu," he answered.

"Are you Harsesis?"

For a brief moment, Shifu pondered the question. "I am many things," he responded, since Harcesis was not the culmination of his being.

Aldwin tried another tactic. "Do you possess the genetic knowledge passed on to you by Apophis?"

"Yes," Shifu responded, for he did. He simply could not, would not, access it. But he still had it within him.

Sam jumped in, taking over the questioning. "What did you do to Daniel?" she asked, concerned.

This question again. "Dreams sometimes teach," he stated yet again. "I am teaching him."

"Teaching him what?" she insisted.

"That the true nature of a man is determined in the battle between his conscious mind and his subconscious, and that the evil in my subconscious is too strong to resist," Shifu stated before going still. His head turned toward the doorway where a recently awakened Daniel slid into view.

"The only way to win is to deny it battle," Daniel said quietly as he stepped into the room, finally understanding the full brunt of what Shifu had meant all along.

Shifu gave a slight smile and a nod of his head. "As Oma teaches."'

Dr. Frasier stepped into the observation room alongside Jack and General Hammond. "He woke up a few minutes ago," she mentioned as she looked down on Daniel and Shifu. She had tried to keep him in the bed, but he insisted he was fine and she had no medical reason to keep him there, so she allowed him to go find the boy.

Daniel pushed his glasses up as he moved closer to the chair where Shifu was restrained. "One of these days I'm going to figure out she's worth listening to."

Even though Sam was overjoyed to see Daniel up and about and seeming fine, she still wasn't convinced there was no danger. "What happened?" she asked.

"I was having a dream," Daniel stated. It was an understatement. He could still feel himself shaking off the aftermath of the dream. While it now seemed wispy in the manner of dreams, it was still substantial enough to cause his conflicting feelings to linger. He understood now how easy it was to turn to the darkness within and become focused on one thing so intently that the rest of the world fell away. It wasn't like his usual way of focusing on his work, this was consuming in a way nothing else had ever been.

Sam's voice pulled him back from his introspection. "About what?"

"That's not really important," Daniel replied softly. He couldn't look straight at Sam as he spoke. When he glanced at her, he saw an overlay of her face filled with betrayal, anger and sadness as he had his security team pull her away and trump up false charges to keep her in jail and out of his hair. That he could be so callous to his friend, so cruel, disgusted him. He didn't want to talk about it. Not yet. Maybe not ever. "The important thing," he continued, "is that it's time I chose a new path."

"And it is time for me to continue on mine," Shifu said. He could tell that Daniel now understood what was in his mind and heart. He could come to terms with why Shifu needed to remain with the Ascended and hopefully find a sense of peace in it.

The Tok'ra frowned and raised a hand to motion to the boy. "Wait a minute. If he really is Harcesis-"

"He is," Daniel interrupted, eyes never leaving Shifu's face. Part of him wanted to memorize the boy's features and he found himself seeking out the reminders of Sha're that lingered there. Once more his heart clenched at the thought that the boy was the closest thing he would ever have to a child with his now dead wife. The bond of family was there even if the bloodline was not. Suddenly the thought of returning to Abydos again didn't fill him with sadness as it had before. He still had family, there and on SG-1. Daniel was done being alone.

"We can still extract some very valuable information from him," Aldwin protested.

Daniel shook his head. "No." It was a firm if quiet statement as he turned his head toward Aldwin and the machine. "You can't."

Jack and Hammond looked at each other.

The IOA was not going to like this development. Even though the General had full faith in dr. Jackson and knew that if he was insisting that they couldn't extract the needed information from him, there had to be a good reason for it and he would have to figure out a way to explain that to the oversight committee who had a track record of being less than understanding about such things.

"Wait," Aldwin protested, looking toward Sam for help and finding none there. He looked back to Daniel. "I don't understand."

"I know." Daniel looked over at Shifu who smiled back at him. "Thank you for telling me of my mother."

"She would have been very proud of you." Daniel knew it was the truth. Sha're would have given birth to a child who was smart and wise no matter if he the knowledge of the Goa'uld in his brain or not. He felt a moment of paternal pride and of loss.

Shifu studied Daniel's face for a moment. "Of you as well," he pointed out.

It was hard to hear, mostly because Daniel was reminded once more of how many times he had failed her. He didn't keep her safe on Abydos. He unburied the Stargate and allowed pain and danger into their lives. He didn't save her from becoming a host to a Goa'uld. He didn't even save her from the staff blast that took her life and saved his own. The least he could do is make every attempt to keep her son safe. "Will I see you again?"

"All roads eventually lead to the great path," Shifu reminded him in what Daniel could only assume was a cryptic affirmative.

"Eventually," Daniel responded with a nod as the boy smiled. "Many paths cross on the way," Shifu added.

Aldwin watched the pair look at each other in what seemed to be some sort of silent communication. Even the other members of SG-1 had the look on their faces of understanding something he was clearly missing. "What's going on?" he murmured to Sam who still stood at his side. "We're not just going to let him leave?"

"I don't think we have a choice," Sam replied as Shifu's form began to glow and his physical body fell away, melting into the ball of glowing energy as he retook his Ascended form.

Never before faced with an Ascended, Aldwin and one of the SFs guarding the room flinched back, eyes squinted against the blinding glow that hovered in the air.

Daniel stood with his hands on his hips, watching as the form that was once his stepson lifted off the chair and floated through the room and drifted out the doorway.

The klaxons started blaring throughout the base, signalling an activation of the Stargate.

Daniel ran past the SFs to follow, Sam and Teal'c hot on his tail.

"General," Jack said as he watched, "I highly recommend you order all personnel to stand down and get the heck out of the way."

"Are you sure, Colonel?"

Before the words were even out, Jack turned away from Hammond. "The alternative might not be so pretty," Jack added as he hurried out of the observation room and into the hallway.

"Well what am I supposed to say?" Hammond called after Jack.

Jack didn't answer. His long legs had him long gone already, chasing after the light and his team.

With a slight shrug, Hammond picked up the microphone and pressed the button to page the entire base. "All personnel, this is General Hammond. A glowing energy being is headed for level twenty eight. We believe it is heading for the Gate room. Lower your weapons and do not attempt to intercept it."

As the announcement blared through the halls, the guards in the hallway hesitated and dropped their guns to the side, stepping out of the way. The Stargate began to spin into action, locking each chevron of the sequence as the control room staff just stared down at their unresponsive controls. The last chevron locked in and the wormhole engaged, splashing outward with a woosh before falling back into itself and stilling into a watery pool.

Walter pulled his hands away and just watched from the control room view as SG-1 assembled behind him. "The Gate just opened, sir," he announced, voice surprisingly steady. Then again, on a scale of one to ten, this really only rated about a seven on the strangeness level when it came to the SGC.

Down in the Gate room, one of the newer SFs quickly sidestepped out of the way with a gulp before tugging off his weapon and putting it onto the ground with his hands raised slightly before sidestepping out of the room. Another SF followed suit, removing his P90 to put on the ground though he remained in place.

Daniel watched as the glowing light slid toward the open wormhole, pausing before the event horizon. The figure of Shifu's human form appeared within the light, a hand raised in farewell. Even as he watched, Daniel fought back a strange urge to plead with him to stay longer while a secret part inside of him was glad the boy was leaving.

The light was swallowed by the wormhole and the Stargate deactivated as Daniel watched, a sense of peace warring inside with his discontent.


End file.
